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TTRPG Tuesday: Spiritual Mana Burn

Heyyyyy it’s… after midnight on a Monday.  But I haven’t gone to sleep yet.  Is this a Mechanic Monday? A TTRPG Tuesday? The idea I have in mind is… both!

Spirit Power Via Three Stats

Player heroes are capable of extraordinary feats, by allowing primal spirits to inhabit them.  Just the act of inviting in a spirit is taxing, but channeling the spirit is truly… costly.  No matter what a spirit promises, they all hunger for life, they crave being real and whole and tangible again.  They drain their hosts whenever their powers are called upon; heroes can strengthen their sense of identity to resist this subsumption, but no one gets out of this alive.

Heroes have three stats: Other, Resolve, and Self.  Self represents a hero’s health, be it mental, emotional, and/or physical.  Other represents the amount of spiritual charge a hero is carrying.  Resolve is a hero’s ability to protect their Self from the corroding effects of Other.

Be it magic, martial, or otherwise, calling upon an inhabiting spirit means focusing your Other.  The more spirit power you build up, the higher your Other, and the more powerful spells, blade techniques, or other maneuvers your hero can execute; but carrying spirit power harms your Resolve, and after that, your Self.

Ex.

  • Greem is host to the Tuatara spirit of Prophecy and the Orchid spirit of Poison
  • Her current scores are Other: 0; Resolve: 3; Self: 15
  • She can use lvl 0 Prophecy and Poison abilities like Second Guess and Detect Venom without having any Other
  • In order to use a lvl 3 Poison ability, Wither Field, she spends a turn channeling Orchid; her Other score is now 1, and at the end of her turn, she takes damage equal to her Other score
  • Because Greem has a Resolve score of 3, that score goes down by 1, protecting her Self score
  • Her current scores are Other: 1; Resolve: 2; Self: 15
  • The next turn, Greem channels Orchid again, and her Other score is now 2
  • She takes 2 damage again - as her Resolve score went down from 3 to 2 last turn, it is now down to 0
  • Her current scores are Other: 2; Resolve: 0; Self: 15
  • Any subsequent damage will be done directly to Greem’s Self score
  • On the next turn, Greem has channeled enough Orchid to use a lvl 3 Poison ability, and she unleashes Wither Field
  • Greem can now release the channeled Orchid, stepping her Other score back down to 2, but she would no longer be able to use Wither Field or any other lvl 3 Poison abilities
  • Even though Greem has used up her Resolve, she feels good about how much Self she has, and so she decides to keep the channeled Orchid
  • Though she does not channel any additional Orchid, she still takes damage equal to her Other score; without any Resolve, that damage is dealt to her self
  • Her current scores are Other: 3; Resolve: 0; Self: 12
  • Next turn she can use lvl 0 Prophecy abilities, or lvl 0-3 Poison abilities

So basically it’s what if Mana came from external sources and it hurt to hold onto it? Feels suited to a TTRPG but also could just be a boardgame mechanic (as mine so often are).  I think that becoming host to a Spirit decreases your max Self, with a steeper and steeper cost for each new Spirit? Anyway, it’s been bouncing around my head a little bit, maybe it’ll bounce around yours too.  Til next time!

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