Today's Challenge CN:Ascend Themes Part V

A couple disappointments. Adventure Seeds and Adversaries! My list has narrowed to 3, and only one was at the top to begin with.  One I never thought to touch with a ten foot pole.  

What I learned in 4 days of shifting through the ashes of 10 themes.

Born Under a Bad Sign

Very intrigued with this idea of Divination as a Magic. My idea drifts to one character making a Divination Test. The Successes rolled can be used by anyone in the group as an Aid. This can be done a number of times per Success. There is a catch though. The Prophesy is created by the group. Each Player makes a Faith Test. The player with the highest number of Successes Narrates a snippet of the Prophet, giving it a Tag. The Tag is maybe a Trait, and the Prophesy as an Aid can only be used when making a Test using that Trait. The next Player Narrates one of their Successes, and so on around the table. In this way the Prophesy is made collectively, with the Players Tagging it with the traits they are most likely able to exploit.

Calligraphy

Some of this idea, the layering of Narration to create a graceful and fluid description of action has been implemented into the mechanic Invoke.

Artistry, whether Calligraphy, Dance, Kata, etc... may still form a roll in Divination, especially for the Action Sects. This is still conflated in my head with Permanent Art, like Tattooing.

Collapse

This is definitely one of the Themes of Ascend. Both in terms of the Great Collapse which sets the scene for Ascend, the hero's struggle against further Collapse, and in the Collapse Dice Mechanic.

Collapse is a mechanic similar to Legend of the 5 Ring's Raise. There too, one increases the chances of failure to create more advantage should the roll succeed. Several key differences, this “dial” is used in any number of ways, and the risk mitigated frequently through “free Raises” frequently. I am looking for a tighter mechanic for Collapse. Also, most rolls in L5R have no tier beyond success. If you roll particularly well, you are left with a hollow feeling of I wish I had made more Raises. In Collapse, if you roll well, you not only gain the advantage, but still gain the uses of the extra successes. Collapse increases the risk of failure significantly, and reduces the potential of extra successes as well. Interesting choices.

Game Night

This gave me an interesting road to pursue for another game, one based on Duality. I will have to explore this in the future.

Also gave me an Adversary type and Adventure Seed.

And there is some more idea space to be explored, Game Night in the Theme Park.

I think I can

I am disappointed with my effort on this one. There is still a Neil Gaiman-esque landscape to be explored, the idea that thought enables the possibility of our potential. Ultimately, this wrestled with my established notions of the Sects, and lost.

Still plenty of fertile ground created in Ghosts as Adversaries. Ghosts are those for whom Thought has supplanted and eliminated Action. They are disembodied spirits. The notion that the Heroes thoughts enable Ghost, and strengthen it gives a strong flavor for them as Adversaries, and an Adventure Hook.

Pond

Pond gave spawn to a great many ideas, and this is now one of Ascend's Themes. I had already decided on a Dice Pool system, but conflating Pool with Pond has given me new Mechanic ideas, Ripples and Casting Stones.

Pond as setting has also focused by thinking on Ascend's premise. Civilizations are “trapped” in Clusters, unconnected except by the The Last Outpost. Only very very rarely does one travel outside their own Pond. Travel and trade are regulated to riding the Ripples, which while not infrequent, is unpredictable.

Ripples also has lead me to think of plot. Each event is a Cast stone, the Heroes contending with the Ripples. The Ripples lash out from their origin, and create more Ripples, affecting things on other planets and other civilizations. This drives the next location. And so on.

Roaming

This theme, I thought, would prove more fertile then it did. It did spawn some good questions. One series to left unanswered by me, but asked for the benefit of the Players. Why do the Heroes ride the ripples? For the experience of the journey? For the Destination? Or to Leave behind … what?

The other Question is fertile grounds for Adventure Seeds and Adversaries. What else rides the ripples?

Tattoo

This starts to cut into some uses of skills, and leaving legacies. The Heroes act to prevent the Collapse of civilizations. To do so they must reinforce Beliefs. But Beliefs held too strongly can be corrupted, and become extreme. Permanent reminders can steel a civilization form future threat, but can also hasten them down a false path.

Storytelling, whether through Tattooing or other means, is a vital method steering each civilization. Each Hero will want a method of shaping their message.

Another question to be contemplated: What marks the Heroes as one?

The Last Outpost

Perhaps the most surprising and impacting theme I played with. This has given shape to Ascend's setting. The home of the Council, the last of the Great Civilization. Trading post. The last chance when riding a ripple to catch a hold before plummeting into the maddening depths.

A necessary way station from time to time for the Heroes, less they deviate too far from the orthodoxy. Their Last Outpost, metaphorically, before plunging into madness.

Harbinger of Humanity's failing, or Hope?

Theme Park

This theme gave shape to the spaces in-between. The maddening realm of endless possibilities. To dance with the stars is to risk insanity.

Also gave birth to the Jabberwocky as Adversary and another Adventure Seed!