Manifest: Conditions

Last time, I looked at Abilities and what sort of “Special Effects” Sync could add to their basic attacks. One of the more obvious options is conditions, so this time I’d like to look into what kind of conditions Manifest could have.

Luckily, I have two great sources of inspiration: Trespasser and Demon Crawl – Gothic.

Demon Crawl – Gothic, similar to its spiritual sequal Steel Hearts, has a small number of conditions, one for each damage-type. Designed to be a quick paced action game, these conditions aren’t the more narratively focused conditions like prone or grappled. Instead, they are closer to the hinderances of an action-adventure video game. Burning, for example, causes you to take three damage whenever you deal damage to an enemy. Rotting means you take an extra 2 damage whenever damage is dealt to you. Being Hexed causes you to receive 1 damage every square you move.

Conditions only last one turn, which is not as significant a limitation as you might think, as players can act multiple times on one turn. At the same time, Players can only ever have one active condition at a time. If you receive another Condition, it replaces the first and deals 2 extra damage.

This is an elegant little system. There is never a downside to applying conditions, as they will either hinder the target or cause extra damage if quickly replaced.

These conditions also provide shape to the player’s turn; perhaps moving across the room isn’t a smart idea now that you’re Hexed. Maybe being Burned means you’re going to save your big attacks for next turn. Maybe Rotting means you’re going to step away from the charging horde.

The fact that these Conditions only last a turn is also significant; it means no extra time or energy has to be spent healing yourself, and any hinderances you have only have to be mitigated for a single turn. You’re not taking extra damage until you heal, you’re taking extra damage for this turn only.

At the same time, Trespasser has an elegant method of handling Conditions; namely, they only last for a certain amount of time. Rather than relying on roll-save-at-the-beginning-of-your-turn, Conditions have a “strength” level, which decides how long they last. Whether Bleeding, Blinded, Delayed, Prone, or Staggered, your condition has a number, such as Bleeding 3 or Staggered 2. At the end of your turn, you reduce each number by 1. If the number is ever 0, the condition ends.

That means if you are Bleeding 3, you will only have to suffer the effects of Bleeding for three turns, fewer if you spend time healing yourself or get a boost from an ally. Some conditions’ effects are based on their duration, so Vulnerable, for example, causes you to suffer an amount of extra damage equal to the duration of Vulnerable. If you have Vulnerable 2, you receive 2 extra damage whenever you’re hit. Next turn, you’d receive 1 extra, and none for every turn after that.

At the same time, conditions stack: if you suffer Vulnerable 3 when you already have Vulnerable 2, you now have Vulnerable 5.

I like this handling of Conditions, as it likewise keeps clarity with the players’ options. Players can heal themselves fairly easily, and if they don’t they know exactly what their hinderance is and how long it will last.

What should I use for Manifest?

Well, having no more than six conditions sounds like a good place to start. We even have four emotions, so having four conditions that relate to those emotions makes sense. I’m not sure about only having one condition at a time, but that can be playtested.

Since I am hoping to have multiple Manifestations being controlled at once, having Conditions last for only one turn doesn’t make sense. An Immobilizing condition won’t make a difference if that Manifestation isn’t moving this turn, anyway. This suggests two solutions; a strength meter for each Condition, like Trespasser, or establish conditions as unique and distinct effects that take place at certian times.

Another posibility is — again — that Manifestations are a part of PCs, so Conditions don’t effect Manifestations, but the PCs. Therefore, put a condition on one Manifestation and it is in effect for all of your Manifestations.

That certainly fits with the ludo-narrative, but before I go too much further, I should come up with a few actual conditions. Here’s a working list, where X equals the “duration” of the condition:

Rage (Anger)

Suffer 1 damage after taking an Action. Reduce Rage by 1 after every action taken.

Terrified (Fear)

Subtract X from your Power roll, to a minimum of one. Reduce Terrified by 1 after making any ability roll.

Hopeless (Grief)

At the start of your turn, roll Xd4. For each 1-2, take 1 Damage. Reduce by 1 every turn.

Distracted (Delight)

Suffer 1 damage for every space moved into. Reduce by 1 each time damage is delt.

Bound

This Manifestation cannot move or take actions. Remove at the end of your turn.

Immobilized

This Manifestation cannot move either voluntarily or involuntarily. Remove at the end of your turn.

The goal of these conditions is to adjust the recipiants tactical considerations. If the game were played on a chessboard-like field, a condition could restrict lateral movement, or force a piece to move backwards instead of forwards. Rather than take a player out of the game until the condition is removed (e.g. stunning or paralysis) or dictating their behavior, (e.g. terror or charming effects) these conditions layer a cost onto specific actions.

Rage and Distracted both cause damage, but only in specific situations. This mitigates the “is this better than just attacking” question, because it is, fundamentally, a way of doing damage anyway. They only do 1 damage, because the more damage they do, the less likely an opponant is to consider suffering the damage in exchange for taking action. I don’t want these conditions to functionally be “paralyze, but you do it to yourself.”

Hopeless is a poison mechanic. The structure of the condition means that if you have Hopeless(4), you could receive anywhere from 0 to 4!(10) damage. For low strengths, this could be negligable, while higher strengths might be deadly. This makes it a cost-benefit analysis of whether or not to try and remove the condition, and when.

Now that is an important question; when and how do these conditions get removed? Obviously, the conditions can be removed by suffering through them, but is that the only way?

Adding in a “remove condition” ability is not the easy answer it seems to be. If the ability is easy to get, a Manifestation that adopts the role of ‘cleric’ is almost a sure thing, mitigated only by the loss of the Manifestation having a different role. That makes more of a difference with fewer Manifestations; a designated healer in a party of six isn’t much of an opportunity cost compared to one in a party of three.

Alternately, we could look at a character that every group is sure to have: the Agent.

The Agent, having possibly limited tactical value, could be given a designated “heal.” At the cost of one Action, the Agent reconnects with their emotions and reduces one condition on one manifestation by Bond levels. This makes high Bond Manifestations easier to cure, and rather than outright curing them, may only mitigate the damage.

Curing a Manifestation would therefore use up an Action that could have been used by another Manifestation that turn, in favor of preventing damage or tactical limitation. Alternately, if the Manifestation is a hardy sort, it might suffer through the condition, making it merely extra damage. On the other other hand, the player could choose to keep the condition and simply adjust their tactics. A long-range low-health Manifestation might just snipe while sitting still, and never get hurt by Distracted…until it gets pushed or pulled by an enemy ability…

Having three obvious tactical choices as a result of this mechanic feels like a solid addition. I’ll stick with this for now, and next time I can take a bit more of a look at what happens when all the damage and conditions take their toll.