Beyond the Veil Draft Pt III: Character Advancement and Status Afflictions

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Character Advancement and Terminology

Each of these by themselves are pretty short, so I thought I would combine them into a single post. I eagerly await getting my notes down for this initial draft so I can really think about where to go with this and get everything into a playtest document.

Aspects and You

There have been a couple of times I have mentioned an "Aspect attribute". A character's Aspect is the "core" attribute of the class they embody. An archetypical bard would have Charisma as their Aspect, and an archetypical wizard would have Sense. Rather than have a lot of core checks based around an attribute chosen by the GM, Aspect-related checks allow characters to shine in their own way. However, some things are just better off being one thing over another; no amount of sweet talking is going to bend the bars of a prison cell open (probably).

Character Advancement Table

Classes range from zero to five in this game by default, with currency as experience points. This currency cost is indicative of training, supplies, research costs or whatever else makes sense for your class. This currency is spent on level up, you do not keep it. Levels cannot be skipped and must be taken in order. Leveling up can only be done in the relative safety of a town where characters can acquire the materials and resources they need.

Level	Plates Required to Achieve Level
0	0
1	1
2	4
3	9
4	16
5	25

Status Afflictions

Sometimes things happen, and your character gets to feeling a certain way. These are represented generally by roleplay, but sometimes amore mechanical nudge is necessary to get the mood across.

Affliction	Description
Healthy	Congrats! There is not currently anything wrong with you!
Injured	If you take damage while Healthy, you become Injured. -2 on all Checks.
Critical	If you take damage while Injured, you become Critical. You are nearing the Veil, on Death’s doorstep. -2 Card Draws on all checks. You need help, now.
Hungry	You have not had food/water for 1 week/3 days. -1 to all checks per 1 week/3 day time period. Become Dead after 3 time periods with no food or water.
Sick	You have contracted some disease or illness, probably from a monster or trap or deciding to sleep in a gutter. Specific penalties differ per source of the Sick condition.
Scared	If your Aspect is Red, you lash out at the source of your fear and cannot flee and must move closer to the source. +1 card draw to attack the source of your fear. If your Aspect is Black, you freeze and are unable to take actions besides fleeing. +1 Card draw to attempt to flee from the source of your fear.
Blind	You cannot see. -3 to all vision related Checks (such as shooting someone or writing your name); automatically fail things it would make sense to fail.
Charmed	You view the source of the Charm as an ally you trust implicitly.
Poisoned	You have been afflicted with a poison, probably from a monster or trap or enterprising assassin. Specific effects differ by poison.
Dead	If you take damage while Critical, you die. You are dead; create a new character.
Spirited	If you would be Scared or Charmed, lose this condition instead.
Blessed	If you would become Critical, lose this condition instead.
Prepared	If you would gain an increment of Hungry, lose this condition instead.
Invisible	All other characters treat you as if they are Blind.

What Comes Next

Time to finally get some classes written down and wrap up player-character stuff before diving into combat mechanics work, they should be fun to write and hopefully not terribly unbalanced.