I've taken too long with this article. With 10 articles written in the meantime, it's been enough time to process most issues I had with writing this down. This won't be perfect, there are already things I changed from the first article, it's better to just go ahead and do it so that it's out there.
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| Vault, by thegryph |
Freerunning Pillar
This is a pillar focused on mobility and action-packed scenes. Their focus is to deliver or retrieve information, items, or even people, moving them between a safe place (local hideout, team's van, etc.) and a dangerous place (megacorporation's offices, etc.). Optimally, you'd do this without getting noticed, but getting noticed is an inevitability. However, in this process, you can't remove your pursuers.
Let's begin by defining the environment. I've already talked about the areas and passages in the first article briefly, and they are described in greater detail in Runehack: Fairy Heist. Areas are discrete locations that could contain one or more characters, and passages (sometimes called routes) connect them. Since the pillar is all about navigating this space, several types of passages are introduced, mostly described as obstacles. Some examples of these include:
- Around is an obstacle that you navigate by making multiple turns (such as a crooked alleyway, a crowd of people, etc.). It doesn't require hands to be passed through, and it blocks sight.
- Low is an obstacle that you navigate by slouching slightly (such as a low ceiling, etc.). It doesn't require hands to be passed through, and it doesn't block sight.
- Water is an obstacle that you must swim through. It requires hands to pass through, and it doesn't block sight.
A resource energy is featured in this pillar. It equals three times your highest tier, and it can be spent on navigating obstacles (see below), as well as on avoiding attacks. Whenever you are attacked, you can choose to either take 1 wound, or spend an amount of energy that your opponent rolled, provided you have enough energy. When your energy is reduced to 0, you gain 1 wound and your energy can't be increased until you rest after the mission.
By default, when a character tries to move through a route with an obstacle on it, they must either spend an extra act or 1 energy. Through the player options offered in this pillar, players can learn how to master these obstacles and navigate them for free without being slowed down. Each of the obstacle types also has an advanced obstacle (for the examples above it's Around -> Between, Low -> Below, Water -> Underwater). An advanced obstacle can only be mastered after mastering the base obstacle it's derived from. There are additional types of routes that aren't obstacles, and therefore can't be mastered:
- Glass is a passage that can't be passed through, but one can see through it.
- Door is a passage that can be seen and passed through only when it's opened. It takes an act to open, close, and in some cases also lock or unlock.
- Hole is a passage that only tiny characters can move and see through. Others can see through it only by taking the Search act.
During a freerunning mission, players can build up momentum by passing through routes without being slowed down. Momentum can be spent to take the Call, Open/Close, Read, or Search act. When you reach Tier 3 in Freerunning, you can spend 3 momentum to take a Move action (which can produce further momentum). You lose all your momentum either when you take an act that's not Move or spends your momentum, or when your turn ends.
Senses are an important factor during the missions. A character can see clearly anything in their current area, with the exception of the contents of the hiding spots (they can see their contents only if they use the Search act). Each character can be looking in one direction of their choice, which can be changed during their turn, or at the end of any turn. They see clearly anything in that direction until an obstacle blocks their line of sight (some obstacles could maybe allow the Search act to let someone see through, like Hole), and they have a peripheral vision in directions perpendicular to it: it lets them see shapes, colors, and motion, but not specific details.
When it comes to hearing, it's determined by the volume of every sound. For every two routes the sound has to cross, its volume decreases by 1. You can hear all sounds that can reach your area, but you can only choose to hear clearly one of the sounds with the highest volume to you. You can try to focus on a sound with lower volume by making a Comprehension roll with a difficulty of 4 * its volume. A route that dampens the sound (like water) reduces the volume by 1, echo increases the volume by 1. Sounds produced by Tiny people or items built for Tiny people produce sounds with a volume that's 1 less.
Example volumes:
1: talking, rainfall, walking
2: swimming, flying, talking loudly
3: shouting, multiple vehicles
4: loud vehicle
(I don't know how viable the sounds will be in practice, for now it just sounded interesting enough on paper, so I'm including it here. Worst case scenario, I'll need to simplify it, and everyone will get to learn from my mistake.)
The other senses, usually labeled auxiliary, are mostly less refined than hearing and sound. One can sense the temperature and smell in their area without being able to trace its exact source or distribution. Touch can work on anything a character can reach, while taste can work on anything a character can taste. A character can always tell which way is the north.
An important part of this pillar are the Apps, which you can use as an act. An app is software installed in your runecard for assistance during a mission. Since these are rune-based, they do either telekinesis, illusions, detection, or a combination of these. What apps your character gets depends on your character's role.
Let's see an outline of an example role below. Apps are written in italics, and the current format is more elaborate than this.
Masker
Tier 1
- You can choose whether your footsteps can be heard as long as you have one hand free.
- Master Water obstacles and one other obstacle type of your choice.
- Illusory Item allows you to create a static illusory item. Make an Agility roll to determine how close does one have to examine it to determine if it's real or not.
- Silencer lets you pick one target person that can't be heard until the start of your next turn.
Tier 2
- Choose your specialization: Tinker or Veiler
- Tinker masters the Low obstacle and gains the Illusory Fairy app that lets them make an illusion of a fairy for 1 hour. The illusion can be moved twice on each of your turns.
- Veiler masters the Slope obstacle and gains the Virtual Mask that lets them mask themselves until the end of the current turn, preventing others from seeing or hearing them.
Tier 3
- You master either Around or Over obstacle, as well as one advanced obstacle of your choice.
- Distract lets you pick one target who can't see or hear until the start of your next turn. If you spend extra (TBD) credits, they fall asleep for 1 hour. While asleep, they can't see and are incapacitated until woken up by someone or a loud noise. The app can't put another target to sleep until the last target wakes up.
- You can spend extra (TBD) credits when using the Illusory Item to animate the item, letting its appearance change. Furthermore, you can have up to 8 illusory items present at the same time.
- The Silencer app lets you target any number of people.
Tier 4
- You master one obstacle of your choice, and gain any one app of your choice from Tier 2 or below from any role.
- Depending on your specialization, you gain one of the following upgrades:
- When you use the Illusory Person app, you can make a person of any species, not just a fairy. You can consider it a disguise if its size matches yours.
- When you use the Virtual Mask, its effects last until the start of your next turn. Alternatively, 1/day, you can instead make it last until the end of your next turn.
Tier 5
- You master one obstacle of your choice, and gain any one app of your choice.
- On your turn, you can use your act or spend 1 Momentum to focus on something and ask the GM whether it is an illusion. The GM must answer truthfully.
Tl;dr structure
- Tier 1: unique ability, 2 obstacles, 2 apps
- Tier 2: 1 obstacle, 1 app
- Tier 3: 2 obstacles, 1 app, 1 upgrade
- Tier 4: 1 obstacle, 1 app, 1 upgrade
- Tier 5: unique ability, 1 obstacle, 1 app
- Total: 2 unique abilities, 7 obstacles, 6 apps, 2 upgrades
The roles are mostly written already, the rules for freerunning are pretty much ready. I will admit I got sidetracked by going after my 12 Good Games new year resolution for a bit, and I actually got inspired to run a D&D 5e trishot themed after One Piece. I keep delaying the actual playtest, because I dread finding a group of people to play with regularly, plus making up the story and everything. I feel like I should talk about the hacking next when it comes to the Runehack RPG, but to be honest, everything I have for that has been already featured in Runehack: The Asterist.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
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