Dungeon23/ANOINTED23, March and April roundup (oops)

May 2, 2023

Updating has been pretty spotty for reasons of "I wrote basically 150 pages of Game in these two months"! But as I had time to catch up on Month 4 and finalize it, here's my two.

ANOINTED23 Week 9

March 9, 2023

Well, "week" because it's actually for just March 1st through 5th. You know what I mean.

• Wednesday, 3/1: This month I'm making The Tower of Godfrey, a prison that was originally built by the Academy to house Godfrey, a rune sorcerer who did something egregious that was lost to time. Over time, it was expanded outward to house other inhabitants. It's going to have two Region clocks: Time, a 12-segment clock that ticks with every action/point movement, and Alert, a 6-segment clock that ticks every time Time rolls over, every time a fight lasts 5+ rounds, or on specific events. Alert mostly raises Dispositions to be nastier and adds more enemies on encounters.
• Thursday, 3/2: Drew the map above! 1-2-3 are the main hallway, 10-11-12 are the tower, 4-5-6 are the Warden area, and 7-8-9-13 are the newer cells. This one's going to have two entrances (I'm thinking you get to each depending on the Region you come from: one at the front door and one through a hole in a cell. The 1 -> 4 and 3 -> 10 routes are locked by default: 1 -> 4 is a "soft" one that can be broken down or lockpicked if you don't find a key, while 3 -> 10 needs a Warden's key.
• Friday, 3/3: I wrote up the sanctuaries, points 1 and 13.
  • Point 1: The shoddily-constructed stairs loom before you, pitted with age and weather. A small receiving station is here, with a very small but stately sanctuary and a carefully carved dedication: "Pray for those who reach beyond their grasp. They will find only fleeting rewards in this life, and none in the next."
  • Point 13: This cell has a sanctuary carved into its wall, worn down by weather let in from the gaping hole leading outside. Carved into the wall, barely visible and actively defaced in a few places, is the dedication: "Pray for those who defy the faith. They will find no reward." There is, however, no trace of the prisoner who escaped from here.
• Saturday, 3/4: Did some planning for enemies. Aside from Godfrey himself, I'm going to use:
  • Existing: Dregs and Apprentices. The former for prisoners, the latter for guards.
  • Some secondary Academy enforcer-types. (I have some Inscribed folks in core but this is more something orthodox, as inscription is supposed to be taboo.)
  • Another kind of prisoner.
  • This might be a good time to introduce a Warden as a midboss.
• Sunday, 3/5: Wrote up an Academy Enforcer. They're a melee magic type.
  • Health 6, PD0, MD2, Poise 3. Kind of like a Spearman but a little more magic-resistant.
  • Dagger Sigil: Rng 0, Mag 1, Combo 3, Advance 1
  • Shield Glyph: 1 PD, 3 MD, and 4 Poise until next round. Retreat 1.
  • Targets sorcery/incantation users first.

Next week (aka this week that's already started) I dive deeper and start filling in (more) points.

ANOINTED23 Month 2 roundup: The Eternal Battlefield of Karus

February 28, 2023

End of week 6

February 14, 2023

Feb 6-12 continued this trajectory.

• Monday, 2/6: Point 5, the Camp A siege engine. If you get here, you can use it on any adjacent point - 4, 6, 7, or 9 - to (hopefully) instantly kill several enemies there. If you get a direct hit on the ballista at Point 7 (we'll get to it in a few days, but it prevents travel to/from point 7 except via point 9), it's destroyed. You can use this to soften up a few difficult fights.
• Tuesday, 2/7: Wrote up a Holy Knight, a variant on the standard Knight enemy in ANOINTED, to differentiate Camp B a little bit. It has a single-strike attack instead of a combo and uses Invocation of Vigilance to add stagger resist instead of having a Guard ability.
• Wednesday, 2/8: Point 6, midfield skirmish. A Knight and some Spearmen are squaring off against a Holy Knight and some Spearmen. Disposition by default is that they attack you, but a good roll can make half or all of them keep fighting among themselves instead of you. There's a Bonfire here, so you can reset the freeze clock without taking Harm if you clear the point.
• Thursday, 2/9: Herald's Flagpole. A heavier than usual polearm, it has a Stance move that allows the user and nearby allies to regain Health and shake off Stagger.
• Friday, 2/10: Point 9, Camp B forward command. A Holy Knight and some archers are picking off a few spearmen and guard dogs here. Once the dust clears, you can get that Flagpole here.
• Saturday, 2/11: Point 7, the Ballista and crew. As noted, this makes travel very difficult between 7 and any point other than 9 (it's a "roll and if you don't get a 6 you die" situation). Two Holy Knights and some archers are here. Once combat is done, you can permanently destroy the Ballista.
• Sunday, 2/12: Point 10, the far sanctuary. Very similar to Point 1's, and it bears the same exact inscription: A stone altar sits here, largely untouched with time, with the inscription: "Pray for these warriors, that they may achieve victory over their foes for the cause of righteousness." I like parallelism.

This week I'm tackling the area boss (General Ingrid, Camp B leader) as well as the remaining Point 8, and then doing cleanup for the rest of the month.

ANOINTED23, 2/5 (end of week 5)

February 7, 2023

February 1-5 brought us the start of the Eternal Battlefield of Karus.

• Wednesday, 2/1: Point 1, the Sanctuary. I didn't fuck up this time so it's first day. A stone altar sits here, largely untouched with time, with the inscription: "Pray for these warriors, that they may achieve victory over their foes for the cause of righteousness." (This is obviously talking about the eternal battle but also I'm doing a thing. Get back to me at Point 10.)
• Thursday, 2/2: Point 2, the southern gate of Camp A. (I'll come up with some names later.) The flank of this camp has not been guarded strongly in quite some time. This has an intro fight: 1 + #Anointed Spearmen/Archers, split half and half. Disposition is Default Aggressive, 5-6 Distracted: as mentioned, it's not very well guarded.
• Friday, 2/3: Point 4, Camp A's center. The narrow camp is heavily guarded. A catapult is visible to the north. There's a fight here with 1 + #Anointed Spearmen and 1 + #Anointed Knights: Knights are tough, so this one's pretty rough, especially solo; however, there's an "escape" hex on the far end of the camp. Disposition is Default Defensive, 4-5 Aggressive, 6 Unaware: each Unaware gives you an opportunity to either launch a surprise attack or move up 2 hexes towards that "escape" and ticks the area clock once. (If you make it to the catapult at Point 5, you'll have a better shot at defeating this group.)
• Saturday, 2/4: Wrote up a Guard Dog. It's similar to a Dreg but a little stronger and more aggressive at range 1, but similarly frail.
  • Health 4, no defenses/Poise
  • Leap: Rng 0, Phys 2, Advance 3, Quick 1
  • Bite: Rng 0, Phys 2, Advance 1, Combo 2
  • Savage: Rng 0, Phys 2, Combo 3
  • Prioritizes least armored.
• Sunday, 2/5: Point 3, the far end of Camp A with kennels. It takes 4 ticks to travel to or from here from Point 2, 2 ticks from anywhere else. (Might make this 2 across the board, it's an 8-tick clock so 4 might be a bit much.) 2 Archers + #Anointed guard dogs are here: the dogs are in kennels until they take their turn, which makes it harder to attack them directly.

So far so good! (And I've done two since then, obviously, but we'll get there next week.)

ANOINTED23, 1/31, week 4 + January wrapup

January 31, 2023

Week 1, 2, 3

So this week, I pretty much just did cleanup.

• Tweaked Saint Gratien a bit: reduced MD to 1 and Poise to 4, and changed Invocation of Sanctity (spell parry) to Invocation of Vigilance (can't be staggered). This makes him a much more approachable threat as a mage while still being dangerous.
• Added Dispositions to Points 5, 6, and 9.
• Added more formal descriptions to every point (except 1, which was pretty good).

And on the 28th I decided month 1 is wrapped! Got The Delta Sinkhole, a nasty little swamp region with 9 points, two new enemy types, some nasty ambush stuff, an optional boss, and an NPC! Makes a nice transition area.

ANOINTED23, 1/22 (end of full week 3)

January 22, 2023

Week 1, 2

Day 22! At the end of this week, it's mostly all sketched out.

• Monday, 1/16: Point (7), the shallows. Last week we defined Saint Gratien, the Major Threat of the area. This is where he is, shuffling around mindlessly. He can be attacked here, or potentially bypassed (Default Aggressive, 5-6 Occupied).

• Tuesday, 1/17, Point (8), the detritus pile. A mountain of materiel and bodies, piled into the back corner of this area. You can grab a Poleaxe here...however, it's harder to sneak back, because approaching the pile makes it shuffle around - meaning Gratien is more likely to be disturbed (Default Aggressive, 6 Occupied).

  ...

ANOINTED23, 1/15 (end of full week 2)

January 15, 2023

(Previous)

Day 15! Halfway through. Here's the daily for that:

• Monday, 1/9: Point (1), the Sanctuary. (I'm going to be using the Sanctuaries to do two things. First is re-emphasize the Anointed's connection (via ritual) to the Church; second is to give some way to foreshadow some themes of the area. This is done from the description of it and a prayer set at each.) The place is new, but hastily-erected: it's half fallen apart. This Sanctuary's prayer is: "Pray for the forgotten, those left in the wake of disaster and war. May they find refuge and stillness." (If you're keeping score...nothing here has found refuge and stillness.)
• Tuesday 1/10: Point (6), the walkway north. There's an encounter with 2 + 1/extra Scavengers on the way: by default half of them start behind you, but if you do something tricky on the approach you can avoid being surrounded. You can find a Wakizashi further up the walkway afterwards.
• Wednesday 1/11: Saint Gratien, part 1. (This is the Major Threat in the area - because this is an interstitial region, he's optional, but you get some good stuff. Based on the Attribute combo, he's a Conviction/Knowledge enemy: relating to faith and corruption.) A tall, gangly man with no arms and desiccated skin. His clothes are half-rotted, revealing a carved lump under his skin under the right side of his chest.
  • Health 40, PD 1, MD 2, Poise 6. Pretty tough to stagger, pretty resistant to magic.
  • Trait: Any Mag. Harm received splashes to all nearby (at range 0B)
• Thursday, 1/12: Saint Gratien, part 2. Gratien's actions are all Incantations. I pictured him as one of the original Anointed from the Age of Legends/Daggers, so he gets to have one of each kind: he learned Storm before it was a Blasphemy. (Will probably revise some of these in whatever cleanup pass I do, he's a little too anti-caster focused at the moment.)
  • Prayer for Wrath: Range 0T, Mag 2, Mighty 4, Forceful. (Uses when something's at Range 0-1.)
  • Invocation of Sanctity: Evade 3-, Spells only, reflects back at caster. (Uses when targeted by magic.)
  • Channel Storm: Range 2-4, Mag 2, Multi 5. (Uses when nothing is at Range 0-1.)
  • Dangerous Action: Projected Wrath: Range 1B-2B-3B-4B, Mag 4, Mighty 6, Forceful. Immediate: Move back 2, adds 1 to Encumbrance of all swamp tiles. (He'll initiate this at the end of a round when put below 30, 20, or 10: the Immediate thing happens, and then at the end of the next round the rest happens. It can be canceled by dealing 10 Harm or staggering him in the interim.)
  • His default Behavior is that he goes after anyone with Talismans.
• Friday, 1/13: The Talisman of Saint Gratien (a reward for beating him) is a mass of bone embedded into his breastbone, carved into the symbol of the ancient Church. The corruption leaked into it causes it to repel magic in its vicinity.
  • Weight 3
  • 1 Tier 2 Slot: Prayer
  • 1 Tier 2 Slot: Invocation
  • 1 Tier 2 Slot: Blasphemy
  • Parry (Spell)
  • Having 1 of each is unusual, but less flexible than most talismans, and most don't have Parry of any kind. Most are also Weight 1-2 instead of 3.
• Saturday, 1/14: Invocation of Implacability. (This is another reward for beating him.)
  • Tier 1, Conviction 3, 4F
  • You're immune to anything that would add extra encumbrance (beyond Encumbrance from your equipment Weight). Lasts until the Region Clock advances.
• Sunday, 1/15: Made an NPC. Barnabas is a pious low-country sanctuary tender. He'll ask Anointed to put Gratien to his final rest, and teach them the Invocation of Implacability in exchange for it. He also unlocks all Tier 1 Invocations/Prayers for selection between Regions - my plan is to allow players to choose 1 thing from a list that starts with "everyone's starting equipment" and expands out as they meet NPCs or find things.

Next week, I'll put Gratien and Barnabas in points 7-8-9 and assess what we're doing from there. Might use that last week as a polish week if I run out of content to fill. We'll see!

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:

ANOINTED23, 1/4

January 4, 2023

Three entries so far. Map is going on that first grid for space reasons. I definitely didn't screw up and write Point 1 on Jan 9th already. Ignore that (1) on the map for now. Combat maps for fights go on the grid on the right (they're hexes in the actual game, but the way I have it set up is basically hexes).