Character March 2025: Runehack: The Asterist

Let's delve into the Runehack games and see how they're going to hold up!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: The Asterist

Octica Ironwell is a human from Moorwell who could afford her own digital immortalization. Before that, she used to work as a dentist, with a regular job and a regular family. Once her mind was scanned and uploaded to Everling, she nicknamed herself 8ECT. There, she could finally have a chance to try new things as much as her heart desired. See all the movies, read all the books, listen to all the music. For now, there are still many experiences ahead of her, but one day, she'll have to stop and ask herself the hard question: "Does this life fulfill me?" If she's given a choice to break out of Everling, her response will be yes only once she really considers the question.

One of the things she got to experience is Asterism, hacking the world around her. At the moment, she doesn't use it often, but perhaps when there's a group of other players around her, she might just start to. Her starting Integrity is 4 (I suppose she was into some strange things), and her Corruption starts at a 0.

I don't feel like writing up the full structure of how she'd spend her points, so instead, I'll describe which stats she'd prioritize:

• Stability is at the top since she wants to experience a lot of things, sometimes things dangerous to her simulated self.
• Speed, so that she doesn't miss out on anything.
• Visual, so that others can see her well even when she's silent (she'd always put at least one point here).
• Audio, so she can be heard well by others.
• Runecraft, because you never know when you'll need a bit of Asterism.
• Strength, Auxiliary, Cravenlore, Mindlore, Witlore, and Worldken, only if they are relevant to the experience she's currently going for.

She'd probably also try to keep some points in her Reserve in any situation, just in case.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It has the freeform nature of a roleplaying game to me.

4/5 Soup Stone. You'll need to make up some stuff, but I think it's also giving you plenty to work with.

3/5 Would I Play. See, this is hard for me because I already reworked the hacking minigame into the Runehack RPG. This game's unique selling point for now is that you get to play as a digital ghost in the city of Everling, but I don't know how much longer until I find a way to include those in the Runehack RPG.

3/5 Would I Write. I'm torn on this. If the question is, "Would I take the best aspects of this and include them in the Runehack RPG?", the answer is yes. If the question is "Would you update The Asterist?", the answer is no because the Runehack RPG is what I want to focus on a lot more.

15/20 Total Rating