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TTRPG Tuesday: A Glossary of Channelers

Welcome back to TTRPG Tuesday! Hey that last entry wasn’t a bad idea was it? Anyway, I’ve been deep in Channelers land - which means revisiting some major influences, including ones I hadn’t really acknowledged/identified the first time around, like the Dragonball Z anime, and two D&D supplements that made a big impression on me, the Psionics Handbook (from riiiiight before 3.5e came out) and Tome of Battle: the Book of Nine Swords (from riiiiiight as 3.5e was coming to an end).  Book of Nine Swords in particular, I’m reading cover to cover right now - maybe I’ll do a deep dive sometime into how it’s aged for me, and the particular juncture it occupies in D&D.

Anyhow, out of the past and back to the present: Something plaguing my design right now is that I’ve not committed to terms, and there are lots of things that are fuzzy because the way I think and talk about them are fuzzy.  So today’s exercise is simple: I’m going to make a glossary, and hopefully seeing all the terms next to their definitions and in context with one another will help me settle on these terms enough to move forward, and then I can clean up the WIP and Quick Start text in time to bring a fresh new playset to Playtest Zero next Thursday.


GLOSSARY


Channeler: A person whose beliefs empower them to interact with Spirits and their manifestations.

Calling: The mental and philosophical outlook that allows your belief to influence reality.  Each Calling provides different features and access to different techniques and incarnations.

Dedicate: The Calling of a Channeler who worships a singular Spirit as divine, and draws on their Faith to access their power.  Their singular devotion to their chosen Spirit allows them access to unique techniques, and upon defeat, they give themselves over to their Spirit.

Itinerant: The Calling of a Channeler who forms contracts with one or more Spirits, and carefully balances those relationships as transactions against their own Resolve.

Pragmatist: The Calling of a Channeler who does not believe in Spirits but rather takes a scientific approach to power, and Channels ambient Spiritual energy to activate their own Techniques and Incarnations, rather than those granted by Spirits.

Apostate: The Calling of a Channeler who is actively opposed to Spirit influence and seeks to eradicate it.  Their power comes from the depth and magnitude of their antipathy toward Spirits.

Solitaire: The Calling of a Channeler who is sole host to a Spirit.  The Solitaire and Spirit draw on one another and grow together.

Technique: An action that becomes available to you as a result of Channeling; can be granted by a Spirit or as a feature of your Calling.  Should these simply be called actions?

Incarnation: A physical change in a Channeler that occurs at certain levels of Channeling; can be granted by a Spirit or as a feature of your calling.  Call these forms, formshifts, manifestations, mantles?

Spirit: A primal or abstract force that affects the physical world through manifestations or by being Channeled.

Manifestation: Anywhere a Spirit influences the physical world.  Can be a creature that has succumbed to a Spirit’s pull, a supernatural feature of the landscape, or any kind of phenomenon brought about by the Spirit’s intrusion into reality.

Target: Any entity - person or manifestation - that is on the Map

Ally: Any target on the Map that is friendly to your character

Opponent: Any target on the Map that is not friendly to your character

Map: The 10x5 grid that represents the battlefield for an encounter, comprised of the Threshold and the Field

Threshold: The 5x5 grid that shares a border with the Field on the Map, into which Allies are deployed at the start of an encounter

Field: The 5x5 grid that shares a border with the Threshold on the Map, where Opponents are deployed at the start of an encounter

Self: The stat measuring a character’s physical vitality and sense of identity.  Reduced by damage received.  When a character’s Self reaches zero, the character is defeated.

Resolve: The stat measuring a character’s spiritual power, which is drained or expended in the act of Channeling.  Reduced each round in proportion to the amount a character Channels.  When a character’s Resolve reaches zero, Channeling depletes Self instead.

Other/#i: The stat that tracks the total amount of Channeling a character is actively committed to, whether they are Channeling one Spirit, multiple Spirits, or no Spirits at all.  Each round, a Channeler’s Resolve is decreased by their Other/#1; if their Resolve is zero, their Self is decreased instead.


Well, let’s look that over a few times, let it sit for a few days, and see how it feels.  Enjoy this rare hours-before-midnight TTRPG Tuesday, and see you next time!

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