Hey all,
It’s been a while. I’ve been away. Been busy. Been dealing with things. All that. Anyway, I’m just about to wrap on Hurt Locker, and Changeling: The Lost – Second Edition. I’m basically in the phase of Hurt Locker where I’m knitting drafts together, filling in blanks, applying some notes from my play testers, and otherwise turning it into a cohesive book.
In the mean time, I want to show you one of the surprise additions we’re adding. These two templates are new character options Filamena Young provided for “mortal” characters, basically series of Supernatural Merits that string together into a lesser supernatural character type. One is a group of conscientious, proactive pacifists whose practices and beliefs have become something palpable and even fearsome. Another is a strange phenomenon where luck decides to favor a person to a superlative level.
I hope you dig them, and I can’t wait to get Hurt Locker in your hands. This is technically open development, but late stage. So if you make comments, awesome. But this is beyond the state of major revision. These haven’t been through editing either; they’re in second draft stage.
I really love the concept of Plain – will surely use it to contrast my more violent Mage players. 🙂 Atariya as “too lucky ones” sounds interesting, and will nicely contrast with Cursed that also will go to the Hurt Locker. They are, literally, “Cursed with Awesomeness”. 😉 They also make great Acanthus Awakening build up.
As to the mechanics themselves – We look over Plain Merits:
Most Infected Thing I’ve Ever Seen: Should be Physical Merit ( or even Supernatural ) as change from damage boxes to Tilt of it is rather unnatural thing. Also, I would think if this Merit should not cost 2 or maybe even 3 dots. One dot sounds a bit low…
Over Before it Started: This clearly should be Supernatural Merit. Attackers are compalled to attack here, not talked over.
Phantom Pain: Once again Supernatural Merit – “ drops dead of an unexplained but mundane heart attack or similar phenomenon” should clearly point to it…
Now Atariya Mertis:
Mr. Lucky and all others: Merits from Plain have prerequisites as “Mortal, Plain Reader”, so probably here should be “Mortal, Damn Lucky” for Atariya related ones.
Nine Lives: If your “deaths” are to be cash-in by the Sanctity of Mertis rule, this Merit should be able to be baught outside of character creation. Nine Lives is ultimate expression of what it is Atariya and most character should strife to it. Being the fool that dares the death is the point of the Template, isn’t it? Espeically as you can become Atariya in the games plot also.
See the Flow: “This isn’t the Atariya affecting luck, but more that she’s calling out the exceptional fate in the moment. So, for example, a mage able to detect shifts in luck would not detect a change from this Merit.” – This I do not understand. The Atariya is clealry making some Fate Arcanum based shenninigans – and mages can detect any related phenomena. If luck or Destiny is changed, Fate mages can sense it.
Luck Flows Up: Should be Supernatural Merit.
That’s all from me now – I wait with anticipation for the Hurt Locker then. 😉
Thank you so much. I’ll be revising with these comments in mind.
Being able to buy Nine Lives after chargen makes it so that you can buy an infinite number of lives; hell, you can roll the sanctity of merit refund back into the merit. I don’t like, as an ST, being forced into a position where I can’t reasonably say yes to coming up with or providing a way to justify spending XP on a trait, but being able to repurchase this one breaks a lot of stuff.
I also like this one in particular not having any pre-requisites; it’s supplemental to the Atariya minor template, but something that other character types can benefit from.
Also, a word of caution, labeling a merit as Supernatural grants the character immunity to Quiescence in Mage; that tag is best limited to situations in which the effect is obviously supernatural in a way that’d cause it’s user to suffer a breaking point for using. Most of the Plain merits aren’t that obvious.
Atariya almost makes me want to play Hurt Locker. I almost always play lucky characters even though it is usually “one reroll each game session”
My second favorite Marvel character is Domino but there has never been a good rule system to portray her luck. This is really close and looks a lot of fun.
So glad. That’s definitely evocative of what we’re going for, toward the more cinematic level.
Hope to see if it happens in your chronicles.
Just to be clear, Damn Lucky is meant to reduce damage by 1 lethal or 2 bashing *per* dot? Write up is slightly vague on this.
It’s per dot. I’ll clarify.
Hey Dave.
Love the efforts you’re going through to keep us up to date and informed. Keep it up!
I seek to please!
At first, I was puzzled how luck would interact with a book like Hurt Locker, but it all makes sense. Filamena knocked it out of the park as usual. Excited to see the book.
I’m totally relaying that to her. Thank you!
Small nitpick: The sample atariya’s name should read “Matsumura”, there’s no “tso” syllable in Japanese.
That’s weird. It must have been a typo. It’ll definitely get fixed on second pass.
Well, reading those templates, I now want to do a Plain game as a Storyteller… and play as Nagito Komaeda (from Dangan Ronpa fame) in a mortal Chronicle…
so I guess those templates are quite awesome. I can’t wait for the book now.
Thank you for all your work. I hope you are well and getting more well in this time.