ANOINTED23, 1/8 (end of full week 1), some rambling on planning for Attributes/Regions for ANOINTED

January 8, 2023

(Previous)

So we're at day 8 for this Region. Here's the breakdown of what that looks like:

• Thursday, 1/5: I wrote a new enemy (Scavenger) that I'm picturing as like somewhere between a hyena, wolf, and vulture. Tactics are to approach/surround (they have a very good move for this with Advance 4/Retreat 2) and pick off from there.
• Friday, 1/6: I wrote point (4), which uses those enemies (they're looking down at something at point 5, so you can possibly get the drop on them). The walkway is disconnected from here: you can get to point (6) from here if you have a way to get over there (like a rope), otherwise you have to go down the slope and back up (aka route through point (5)).
• Saturday, 1/7: Point (5), which uses those half-dregs again: it's basically an ambush situation in a bunch of swamp. If you clear it, you can get a few Holy Waters.
• Sunday/Today, 1/8: Planning. I drew out the map and wrote down some self-direction notes. Which, well, we'll have to detour for a sec to make this make sense...

Sidenote: Attributes and how they apply to Regions

To catch anyone reading this up on ANOINTED (because it's not like fully out yet) characters have four attributes, which can be rolled in the FitD/LUMEN sense (#dice = attribute, take highest 1-3 = fail, 4-5 = mixed, 6 = success). They also add to various other substats:

• Prowess (physical fitness and strength. Adds to Health/weight Capacity. Hard requirement for heavy weapons. Soft requirement for high-Weight equipment.)
• Skill (training and reflexes. Adds to number of actions available in a turn. Hard requirement for quick/difficult weapons. Soft requirement for equipment that only hits its stride with high Combos.)
• Conviction (faith and force of will. Adds to Stamina and number of times you can Embody Grace - which is basically Estus. Hard requirement for Church incantations. Soft requirement for anything that burns Stamina harder than usual.)
• Knowledge (education and academic technique. Adds to Focus and increases restoration from Embodying Grace. Hard requirement for rune sorceries. Soft requirement for anything that burns Focus harder than usual.)

All of the Backgrounds emphasize a combination of two of these, with an emphasis on one of them. This is done in a hard and a soft way.

• The hard way is that each Background has Attributes that start at 3/2/1/0, and the two emphases get the high ones and equipment to match. To give two examples of ones that have the same highest one: The Brigand, for example, has 3 Prowess, 1 Skill, 2 Conviction, and 0 Knowledge - as a Prowess/Conviction character it's mostly about having light armor and heavy weapons. On the other hand, the Knight has 3 Prowess, 0 Skill, 1 Conviction, and 2 Knowledge - as a Prowess/Knowledge character it has more of an emphasis on heavy armor but lighter weapons with an emphasis on using their actions that require Focus.
• The soft way is in the character creation questions. Each Background has to answer two questions, each of which gives you +1 to an Attribute. You can make up your own answer and choose the Attribute that goes with it, or you can roll. The trick is that each is a d6 chart where the two emphasis Attributes have two entries. So if you're picking at random or choosing from the options in front of you, you're more likely to double down on their strengths. As an example the Brigand has questions with a few prompt-answers that correspond to:
  1. +1 Prowess
  2. +1 Prowess
  3. +1 Skill
  4. +1 Conviction
  5. +1 Conviction
  6. +1 Knowledge

This is something that I want to keep going in Regions, because advancement is through the same means: describe a memory of your immortal life, either free-form from a vague prompt or answering a direct question (with prompt-answers). So each Region is going to be associated with two Attributes as well:

• Prowess Regions are focused on things like scale and weight: large enemies, mountains, big castles, etc.
• Skill Regions are focused on things like organization, personal conflict, and craftiness: factions, traps, groups setting ambushes.
• Conviction Regions are focused on endurance, age, faith: consistent conditions, older stuff, incantation-users.
• Knowledge Regions are focused on magic, contamination, and unusual stuff: abominations, weirder things, magic-users.

I intend to use these in three ways:

• Direct the questions asked, as noted above
• Provide themes and emphases for the Region, and especially for any Major Threats (bosses, basically, optional or otherwise)
• Direct how I want to do any loot. I want at least one piece of permanent equipment per attribute, hard-requirement or soft-requirement (with less emphasized ones leaning more towards soft). One of these has to be area-unique instead of generic equipment from the book.

Which brings us back to...

Attribute-based planning for the Delta Sinkhole

So I think the most appropriate emphasis for the Sinkhole is going to be Conviction/Knowledge. Conviction because of the emphasis on harsh conditions and things piling up over time, Knowledge because the main "thing" here is half-eaten immortal enemies and that's pretty unusual with more of an emphasis on the "supernatural" things about immortality. For planning purposes I'm thinking:

• The Major Threat here (in 7-8, based on the cyclic map, there's a patrolling monster: I'm thinking it's going to be an optional boss basically) is going to be Conviction/Knowledge based. Due to the way we've described this swamp up to this point, I'm thinking it's going to be an ancient Anointed associated with The Church who's been ground down and contaminated with the bad vibes of this place - maybe they've lost their faculties entirely.
• For loot:
  • Since we have a slight emphasis on Conviction, the unique thing is probably a unique Talisman/Incantation. Probably for beating the optional Major Threat above.
  • We also have an emphasis on Knowledge, which lines up well with our Point (3) Polished Staff/Combustion Sigil. (CS has a Knowledge requirement of 6, which is pretty hefty, but the staff is at least immediately applicable. Might provide one of the starter Sigils with that like Light Sigil so it can be a future blaster-wizard starter kit.)
  • Prowess and Skill are the non-emphases. One is going to be at Point (8), you can circumvent the Major Threat entirely to get it if you so choose/roll well. One is going to be at Point (6) as a "halfway there" kind of on-the-path reward for people who aren't taking side routes.

And we'll get to the question prompt-answers when the time comes. Given that you don't have to beat the Major Threat to proceed it'll probably be a more generalized question.

And that's it for now! Next time, we'll get back to Point (1) which I definitely didn't do last Monday by accident) and keep on trucking from there.

(Read the original on cohost here!)

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