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It's #SelfPromotionSaturday and I'm 100% getting involved! Hi folks! This is a thread about my isolation-horror game TRAVEL NOT ADVISED! Previous threads are linked, now let's get down to business and talk about DESCENT and the MONSTER! https://twitter.com/AuthenticityTrp/status/1355247660735860736
In Blades In The Dark, exceeding your STRESS threshold causes TRAUMA - your character is taken out of the scene and marks one of a few different specific fictional effects. When you get 4 TRAUMA, then your character is officially retired from the game. This system is great, BUT!
There were a few issues with a direct 1-1 implementation. First off, in a game as tightly focused as this one, I don't want to force anyone out of a scene they're rightfully in. Every moment matters. Second, it felt too forgiving. You mark trauma and then you're fine again?? nah.
I wanted it MEANER. Then I came across STRAIN, a very competent game that's a good choice if you're looking to run a more combat-focused fantasy horror campaign! STRAIN and I have very different end-goals, and I do heartily recommend giving it a look. Anyway, the stress thing!
STRAIN adjusts your STRESS threshold and adds DOOM, a mechanic which makes you LESS likely to succeed the more STRESS you have. That's KIND of fun, but I also think it discourages risk when you have high STRESS! What I wanted to take from it was that threshold adjustment idea.
I wanted taking STRESS to feel like slowly getting crushed, not necessarily making you less effective but making every risk MORE risky as you accumulate it. I also wanted to have a larger fictional playground for what taking too much STRESS looked like. And thus DESCENT was born!
Here are the basic rules of DESCENT. First off, as in so many good horror games, your character PANICS! You work with the DM to come up with the desperate and ill-considered actions your character takes while PANICKING. This is the DESCENT skeleton! Let's look at the meat!
DESCENT LEVEL 1 is INSTABILITY. I want to first call your attention to the HARM you take. HARM in this game is split between two columns, MEAT and MIND, and taking LEVEL 4 HARM of either is fatal. DESCENT goes in the MIND track, but it's not the only thing that can! Be careful!!
Second DESCENT - DETERIORATION. The seed of the INSTABILITY that you described now blossoms and blooms, a small crack widening bit by bit. I give you no examples because I want your loosening grasp on reality to be your own. Work with the DM. Base it on your character above all.
The STRESS threshold lowers with every level of DESCENT you take. It starts at 10, but here in LEVEL 3 the threshold is down to 5. You can of course MEND your DESCENT like any HARM if you choose! Assuming, of course, you get the chance. You're on the edge now.
End of the line. DESCENT 4. MADNESS. You'll note that here I also refrain from specifying your character's precise fate - that's a call for you and your DM to make. I just want it to be clear that your character is no longer available to play. That could take a LOT of forms.
Oh, one other thing that guided me in DESCENT design - Mothership and other games have you roll on a madness/stress table to determine the effects? I understand why that's fun, but for ME PERSONALLY I ALWAYS want something that comes from the character above anything else.
I don't want a character to go mad without there being PRECEDENT. I don't want the players' agency to be entirely at the mercy of a single VERY IMPORTANT dice roll that could do a LOT of stuff. Random tables ARE fun, but they're the wrong kind of fun for this game, y'know?
I want players to know what to expect and to be able to plan accordingly. Sharing the process with them, making the risks TRANSPARENT and KNOWABLE, lets them share in the storytelling. Maybe a player WANTS to go mad eventually, and it lets them play a certain way!
The point is that here, as in basically everywhere else in TRAVEL NOT ADVISED, I have chosen a set of mechanics that only has the numbers I think are REALLY important. Speaking of parts of my game that are suspiciously lacking in numbers, it's MONSTER TIME BAYBEEEEEE
The MONSTER is simple, because the MONSTER has almost /NO/ rigid mechanics. That's right. The DM has full freedom to do whatever they want with it. Any shape, any size. Any powers. The DM decides how much HARM the MONSTER does on any given attack. The MONSTER doesn't have health.
It doesn't have health, because you can't kill it. It doesn't have "attacks," because it can do whatever the DM says it can do. There isn't a bestiary because it can be whatever the DM wants it to be. It can grow and gain in power as the campaign continues if the DM wishes.
This is the only hard mechanic the MONSTER has, and I'm honestly thinking of removing it. What I'm trying to get across here is that the MONSTER shouldn't be so PHYSICAL of a thing as it usually is in games. It shouldn't be so clearly seen or defined as a dragon.
The DM is given the freedom to sculpt fear into whatever image they choose. I'm not interested in putting limits on fear. It's open, I know, but a good DM will rise to the challenge. I've seen it. (I do provide a little inspiration in the pdf though! Just in case. :))
Thanks for tuning in to today's thread! I hope you're starting to get a sense for the kind of game this can be, and I hope your eyes are wide as the MONSTER takes shape in your mind. Make it MEAN. Make it FUN. TRAVEL NOT ADVISED will be available Monday, Feb 1st. See you tomorrow
