On Role Abilities
Previously, I have spoken about how when I became a player for Rift Walker, I suddenly found most of the abilities that the roles were given, quite uninspiring or mechanically interesting. I guess as a designer I have always been very conservative with the abilities I give players; for this are of ‘balance’. What I found thought, is that they are not doing what they say they do, ‘on the tin’ so to speak. I initially envisioned them as short lists (more on that in a moment), that you could pick from for each role, in order to define the way that your character plays. However, in practise I found that they actually ended up more as paper buttons. This is a game design term meaning that it's something you reliably press to have an effect happen. This isn't bad design it just isn't really what I wanted. I also found that they ended up being something that you would turn off or on so I would think that they were interactive but the times you would turn them off all wrong was so obvious that it didn't really matter. It wasn't really a choice.
So, I've been thinking a lot about actually going back to the original idea of something that defines the way you play and makes your character act in certain ways that are appropriate to the narrative of that character. I have re envisioned my abilities in a way that they do just that. They either passively or actively change the way that you play your character so that they feel distinct. I have also always liked the idea of them being a sort of way that you break the rules of the game specific to your character.
One of my original design tenants for them was that I didn't want to have to pick off really long or large lists. What that look like in practise was one of six choices per role. In the end I actually found this quite limiting and I got a lot of feedback from the other people in my group that said that most of these choices weren't interesting to them and so they ended up picking one or two from the list of 6. It also means I can roll a d66 to pick one randomly if I want. While it kind of goes against one of my core design principles what I found is that you should listen to feedback of your players and if you notice it when you're playing then it's probably something you should change.
In the end I have now drafted six groups of abilities that have a particular format to them in the way that they affect your character. Some of them might be more passive, or more active, or more complex. This is good because it does really give the player the ability to refine their choices by that statement and in the end, they go with my core design ethos of affecting the way that the player plays the game.
One of the more interesting groups I've made is changing the core dice mechanic for example one allows people to gain a success if they roll trips. This is something I've wanted to experiment with because this is a good little passive not complex addition to the game but it gives somebody something engaging to lookout for when they roll. Some of them are risk reward, some of them present new options for interaction; and some of them the greatest hits of my previous list.
For those ones in particular I focused on the ones that gave new actions that didn't take away from other players. I also wanted to make sure that none of the abilities were really just a use of a power and disguise. Some of them I actually found that was the case and I wanted to remove that. I also wanted to remove ones that made it so that other players would feel like that they couldn't attempt the same thing with a skill check or creative play. That is one of my least favourite aspects of player abilities in games where it feels like trying something creative is now locked behind this specific ability. I think there is a good balance to be struck here so for example I have one where people can heal without needing a check. This means that people can still try to heal somebody by using a medicine skill or some other check, but it also gives somebody a reliable ability when they assist to give free healing. I'm also particularly interested in the ones that give a sort of risk reward so it gives the players something to be excited about and interact with.
I present them here as a play test for anybody that's playing Rift Walker right now to tell me what you think.
Dice Rolling
Adventurer. Replace dice with d8 - to replace this with d6s, you can mark one d6 special that succeeds on a 5 or 6. Each time you take this, increase that die, or take an additional d8.
Prosperous. Each rolled 6 Explodes and can be rerolled on top of original roll.
Feeling Lucky. Pick a lucky number. Whenever it is rolled, it can be rerolled.
Set maker. 3 of a kinds of any value, count as an additional success.
Sequence setter. Whenever you roll 3 or more dice, if you get a sequential run, it counts as 3 additional successes.
Last Chance. Roll a d66 with each unsuccessful check. If a pair is rolled, you may reroll your check.
Active Complexity
Fail forward. Each adventure Place a d6 on your sheet, starting at 1. Each Failed Roll increases this die by 1. It may be reset to 1 at any time to add its current value in modifiers to any roll.
Momentum. Each adventure Place a d6 on your sheet, starting at 1. Each Successful Roll increases this die by 1. Once it reaches 6, It my be reset to 1 to cash in for a Success that can be spent on any check.
Controlled Future. Each adventure Place a d6 on your sheet, on 6. That is the amount of pips that can be added to increase rolled individual dice on future checks. If successful on a check, add another pip.
Stress and Stamina. Select WP or END pool. You may spend recovery points in order to increase one of the following effects on a 1:1 basis. Additional effects may be selected with each choice of this ability: Damage, Armour, Move Distance, Range Increments, Modifiers to your rolls, Modifier to Allies' rolls
Adaptive Thief. Choose to “steal the condition effect or damage from single attack and direct it at any target you like” - for each point of the condition or damage, suffer a penalty modifier to the next roll you make.
Chaotic Explorer. Roll a 6d6 at the start of the adventure, use each point to do one of the following:
negative modifiers to RM actions
Reroll dice this adventure
positive modifiers to your rolls this adventure
positive modifiers to your allies' rolls this adventure
bonus to armour to your or allies rolls this adventure
bonus to damage to your or allies rolls this adventure
Risk vs Reward
Reckless. Gain an additional successful action (1 per round) - gain a critical wound
I can take it. 5s count as 6s. 1s count as 2 damage to you from the pool check rolled from, armour doesn’t work for this damage.
Limit push. Burn a dice from a pool to roll and gain that many bonus dice as a modifier to a check.
Wrath. All damage you take is redirected back at the attacker.
My pain is my power. You may add any number of d6s to any attack or check, but on a roll of 3 or more of the same number, lose END or WP equal to the number of dice added to the pool.
Sacrifice. Take a negative modifier to any check, and give that benefit to an allies' future rolls.
Specific Boon
Signature Move. Select a modifier to a power, gain a +1 to all powers to be spent on that modifier. This may be selected multiple times.
Dependable Approach. Select an action (move, attack, skills etc) with an associated narrative impacted approach (sneaky, reckless, selfless etc), when you succeed at check related to this action, double its effectiveness or success
Cleave. Damage to regular attack rolls may be distributed to any adjacent targets
Hunter. Pick a single target each scene: make all checks easy against it.
Immune. Pick an application of a condition, such as Compelled forced attacks or Hindered movement on consultation with the RM. You become immune to that kind of Condition, and if it applies to you, you may redirect it to another Foe.
Judgement. If you are the solo target of an effect and you successfully avoid it, you may redirect it.
New Interactions
Reactive. You may switch the pool that armour or damage applies. When you do, take 1 damage to that pool.
Team Player. Your successes in Group rolls and montage checks you are a part of count being doubly successful.
Commander. You may use an action to have another character do an action. When you do, apply your assist action bonus to your next action.
Channeler. Each extra turn you spend on an action, you may gain an extra free power dice to the final roll. You may spend your other action doing something other than casting a power.
Broad Background. You may make a hard check in something outside your character’s expertise.
Life Transfer. You may transfer your pool dice to another ally.
Passive Effects
Wild Magic. Whenever a power is used, roll on the random effect table. Your RM has that table. If you roll a 6 on your power roll, roll a random effect twice and select an option.
No Fear. You now require 5 critical wounds before death. You are also always considered to take the heal downtime actin to heal a critical wound.
Carouser. You are always considered to have use of the Chance Downtime action, when doing another downtime action. Also your last downtime chance narrative may be applied as if a pool slot in this adventure.
Savant. Choose a Pool slot item. You always succeed at Skill checks using this item.
Healer. When you use the assist action, you may choose to heal someone for an amount equal to your modifier, without making a check.
Plan Ahead. You may choose to store extra successes on checks as 1:1 spent points to resist RM peril.
