Manifest: Special Effects

Last time, I decided that abilities have both a basic effect and a Sync effect; a bonus that becomes stronger the higher your Manifestation’s Bond is.

But what kind of bonuses could a Manifestation have? For that matter, I’ve been talking a lot about tactical combat, but I haven’t really done anything with it, have I?

Let’s fix that. We can look at D&D along with any number of other systems to get a feel for a “baseline” tactical combat system. Everything from Lancer to Zafir, Strike! to Voyager: Tactics has some ideas worth exploring.

I don’t see a problem with starting with the most common assumptions: a battle map, miniatures, movement and areas-of-effect…fairly standard stuff. At its most basic, each unit on the board has a certain number of spaces they can move each turn, and a certain number of “actions,” which can be either attacks, special abilities, extra movement, etc.

This is fine when it’s you and four other players around the table. When each of you might be fielding six Manifestations? That’s far too complicated.

If a player has to keep track of up-to-six units, each unit needs to be simple. Keeping track of one D&D character with spells, abilities, equipment, and multiple actions a turn can be confusing sometimes. Keeping track of 16 chess-pieces that all move differently is a similar cognitive load.

That’s actually an interesting point. In most tactical games, you have a certain number of squares your single unit can move. In this game, Manifestations are part of you, so they must tap into your abilities. A possible rule could therefore be: on your turn, you have six “movements” and two “Actions.” These can be split between you and your Manifestations in any manner you decide.

I like this. If you have one Manifestation out, you could move them six spaces and then have them do two actions. If you have six Manifestations, you could move each of them one square, or two of them three squares apiece, and have any of them perform an action or not, so long as only two are ever done on your turn. This keeps the action moving, forces players to consider unit placement, and keeps players from having to consider “what am I doing with all my units,” and instead considering “what can I do with what I have?”

With movement and actions limited like this, it makes sense that movement and positioning might be more important than in other systems. In D&D, for example, pushing an orc three spaces away doesn’t always make much difference, as they can just move those three spaces on their next turn… but if that’s three spaces that the next orc can’t use to get into a better position to shoot an arrow, that makes pushing a much more useful tactical consideration.

But I’m talking about Manifestations a lot. What about the PCs? They’re not just sitting on the sidelines like Pokémon trainers in a gym-battle, they’re hiding, laying down covering fire, throwing granades…they’re just as much a part of the combat as anyone else, if they choose to be.

But they don’t have abilities, do they? Charizard can breathe fire, but Ash can’t. Your PC can’t shoot lasers from their eyes or tear people apart with claws.

Can they? Right now I’m assuming that these emotional Manifestations are at once dependent and independent from their PCs. What if that bond could be more physical? PCs are being “possessed” by these Manifestations in a way, why couldn’t they grow wings, claws, glowing swords, or energy cannons?

That’s definitely something to consider for later. At the moment, if a PC isn’t possessed by a battle-monster, what can they do?

More or less, whatever a PC can do is decided by their training and their equipment. If they have a gun, they can shoot it. If they have a first-aid kit, they can patch up a wound. If there’s a computer nearby, they can try to hack it, if they know how. They don’t have Bond or Tier, so having them use a Power Roll to affect the gamespace doesn’t feel right.

As far as movement goes, it makes sense that PCs move the same as Manifestations; they use one of their six movements on each turn. Apart from that, their only other action could be “use.” Use a gun, use a computer, use a button, use a skill. We can decide later whether this is a narrative conceit — similar to “Manuevers” or “Mighty Deeds” in Iron Halberd or Dungeon Crawl Classics, respectively — or if each item has a codified effect, like an item card in a boardgame. At the moment, it leaves us free to focus on Manifestations and their abilities.

The obvious abilities are the familiar ones: melee attack, long range attack, burst effects, arcs, lines, etc. The less obvious ones are the special effects. Push and pull seem useful already, but what about other conditions?

One of the things I dislike about conditions is their common implementation is fundamentally limiting. Grappling usually forbids movement, and sometimes forces the player to chose between breaking or taking over the grapple on their turn. Being knocked prone likewise prevents movement and mostly mandates you stand up next turn. Disarm prevents fighting and likewise dictates your next turn. Poisoning mandates a future heal or else your character dies, Frightened or Charmed effects sometimes prevent movement or targeting of specific subjects…

All in all, Conditions do little more than limit until cured, meaning a player either has to give up an action or suffer a loss of interesting choices.

Next time, I’d like to look closer at possible Conditions.