Anna's Aspect Choices. Any thoughts?
Added 2023-08-24 00:00:30 +0000 UTCI am giving my Patrons an exclusive first look at Anna's options for her aspect. Please make any constructive comments you wish below. I am especially looking for insight into balancing and cool-factor. I hope you like them. The vote goes up in a few days on Discord.
FYI: the chosen Aspect will have far more influence over the story in the long run than Aspect Trope.
Aspects affect which tropes are awarded and also provide saving throw bonuses. Aspect choice can affect Advance Archetype availability later on.
Team Leader: This aspect embodies a character's innate ability to lead and strategize. A character taking on the Team Leader role is the backbone of any group, always ensuring that everyone is on the right track. Their heightened Savvy allows them to quickly dissect situations, predicting potential outcomes and formulating plans accordingly. Their good Moxie is a testament to their leadership qualities, enabling them to motivate and guide their team through the darkest of times. In the face of danger, the Team Leader's decisions and actions can significantly influence the game's direction, provided they can rally their team and stay alive to see their plans through.
Aspect Trope: And Then There Was One. After failing a storyline, this trope allows the player to join future rescuers during their Party Phase. The storyline will largely follow the same path as the original (assuming the Rescue Trope employed is compatible), making the Team Leader an excellent resource for ensuring a successful rescue.
Girl Next Door: The Girl Next Door aspect captures a character's genuine and relatable nature. Characters with this aspect are the ones everyone naturally gravitates towards, finding comfort in their presence. Their high Moxie is a reflection of their emotional strength and ability to connect with others, making them the emotional anchor of any group. Their Grit showcases their resilience, allowing them to push through challenges and protect those they care about. While they might seem unassuming at first, the Girl Next Door's tenacity and emotional intelligence can unveil unexpected paths and solutions in the game's narrative.
Aspect Trope: A Girl Worth Fighting For. If the Finale arrives and the player is the Last One Alive, the player can choose to end the game instantly. This counts as a loss and no players are revived. The storyline will resume when rescuers arrive to continue the story in an attempt to save the Girl Next Door. The player will not perceive time passing between choosing to end the game, and the rescuers arriving. If a compatible Rescue Trope is employed, the rescuing party will be able to skip First Blood before reuniting with the Girl Next Door for the Finale. The player may swap their Last One Alive trope for any Damsel Archetype trope. However, the enemy will be stronger than normal in the Finale.
Scream Queen: Embracing the Scream Queen aspect means embodying raw courage and determination. Characters with this aspect might be the first to express their fear, but they are also the ones who face it head-on. Their high Mettle showcases their bravery and survival instincts, allowing them to confront the most terrifying scenarios without backing down. Paired with their Grit, they can endure both physical and emotional traumas, making them a beacon of hope for others. The Scream Queen's audacity and resilience can lead to uncharted narrative territories, revealing twists and turns that can change the game's course.
Aspect Trope: Sole Survivor. Upon becoming the Last One Alive in the Finale of a storyline, the Scream Queen can choose to activate this trope. Upon doing so, they will receive large buffs in Mettle, Grit, and their highest remaining stat. If they are able to acheive the win condition, the storyline will end, but no allies will be revived, nor rewards given until a successful rescue is performed. If the Scream Queen joins the rescue, they and the recue party will receive average buffs to Mettle and Grit. The storyline will become a sequel, with a different storyline and a more difficult enemy.
Anna's Stats: 21 Plot Armor, 6 in Mettle, 4 in Moxie, 3 in Hustle, 3 in Savvy, and 5 in Grit.
Comments
I like the Scream Queen ASPECT description best, but I severely dislike all three of these Aspect Tropes.
AmethystEnd
2023-09-03 12:31:01 +0000 UTCMy personal favorite is Scream Queen (name sucks) cause I like that it allows for failure. It's like yeah you get a 2nd chance but you have to earn it. Team lead is iffy to me because it's says the plot line will be similar to when they lost. It being the same is repetitive and probably makes things too easy if she knows what's gonna happen.
Spam Kindle
2023-08-26 01:31:00 +0000 UTCI would like to vote for the girl next door
Stephen McLaughlin
2023-08-25 02:47:01 +0000 UTCScream queen is not a well working one since it makes it to were if she is the last alive of the other could just die thats in thought worse than the one that use rescue tickets.Team leader for me.
The reading Butler
2023-08-24 22:40:48 +0000 UTCHas it been strongly teased or explicitly states in the story that rescue tickets are coming back? If not then taking team leader would be strange. Unless these would drop after rescuing the rescue tickets from the scary rules lawyer
Axim
2023-08-24 17:59:34 +0000 UTCI feel like Girl Next Door might have trauma recovery/emotional healing tropes in it. If so it would be similar in power with the other two and the best for Riley's group. Otherwise, it seems like an aspect for a role better left for more dedicated archetypes like Eye Candy or Comedian. Maybe a trope called 'A Shoulder to Cry On' or something. I do feel GND fits Anna best but it clashes with Kimberly's role.
Aguy768
2023-08-24 14:37:03 +0000 UTCThe notation for the Final Girl aspects is very different from the Film Buff aspects. Whether her stats line up with the Aspect effects may or may not be relevant in the short term, since the players can min/max stats after receiving the Aspect. I think I prefer Team Leader with how they are presented, as it is the least selfish and allows the most flexibility. Scream Queen and Girl Next Door feel like they impact the storyline choices a lot more. Team Leader = Scream Queen > Girl Next Door. Team Leader allows additional group efficiency to open/progress within a storyline, Scream Queen allows them more pressure to finish a storyline, while Girl Next Door has too much overlap with Kimberly's Role. That could be good depending on Kimberly's Aspect choices, but they aren't choosing these as a group.
Chameleon
2023-08-24 13:39:30 +0000 UTCAll three boost hustle. The listed stats are about how they diverge from each other.
Bobby Thom
2023-08-24 10:37:57 +0000 UTCYeah this is basically my thinking as well. “Then There Was One” is clearly the best out of the three tropes which makes me think that the other two tropes should be buffed. The Sole Survivor trope is so harsh that I would hope that the Scream Queen archetype makes up for it in other ways. Worst part is that the stories would either get slightly repetitive if Anna is consistently the sole survivor or result in the trope getting wasted. Narratively though, it also seems most appropriate for Anna to be the Team Leader. No one else in their group makes as much sense, so that would get my vote even if I wasn’t comparing the tropes
jalapenochips
2023-08-24 09:18:12 +0000 UTCI don't like any of them. For Savvy we already have Riley and Camden, and I think Anna deserves more than being a girl next door or a scream queen. I would really like to see an aspect that focuses on Hustle, a last girl should be good at getting out of truble.
Federico
2023-08-24 09:06:32 +0000 UTCI’m not sure I like the scream queen trope, the stories are basically designed around there being at least two deaths. It’s useful if something goes wrong but if there is a small group it would be easy to screw everyone else over. I mean I’m probably just over thinking it. Plus if she chooses it that means she would think she is choosing to kill Camden for good, which could be built into a good character moment… If she decides to gamble on the rescue trope being brought back I think team leader is the better bet as they seem to have already figured the story out.
Vega
2023-08-24 04:25:14 +0000 UTCAnother possible trope name: “A bold strategy cotton”
Phsteven
2023-08-24 04:03:45 +0000 UTCTeam Leader is what I would choose if the Final Girl role was mine. That being said, Anna feels a lot more like a Scream Queen. The team already has two planners, and Kimberly is doing a fine job as the team's heart. Also, assuming she's getting this in the middle of Post-Traumatic, I think she'd probably go with the option that gets her out of the story; she doesn't know Riley's watching her trailer, after all. For all she knows, the rest of the party thinks she and Camden got caught in The Black Snow!
WierdWebLurker
2023-08-24 04:01:53 +0000 UTCI like team leader. Riley’s great but he’s not a leader and their group needs some internal direction imo.
Kain
2023-08-24 01:13:26 +0000 UTCHer current distribution makes me think she's more of a Scream Queen. Headed to uncharted narrative territories sounds great to finding those hidden paths in stories.
LordPanther
2023-08-24 00:43:18 +0000 UTCI feel like combining "Team Leader" and Riley's aspect might do some interesting things. Riley would create a base to build a plan around (seeing as team leader would presumably have carousel 'help' the plan work), which would could be a strong combo with good planning, prep, and tropes. It would also be good to keep that "cleverness" aspect of the story, because they would have to be able to take in and communicate as much info as possible to succeed, and if/when they do, the readers and team get to have a, "I love it when a plan comes together," moment. (Not a bad trope name now that I think of it. Maybe another saying like, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy," trope would be fun too. Could give bonuses to improv or some such. Not the point though.) (If rescue plots happen) In addition, the aspect trope is interesting because the storyline will be quote, "largely the same," so Riley being able to cause flashbacks from deathwatch (assuming that he is in deathwatch still) would be a good way to keep him in the story when there is a team wipe. That and what if they get wiped in a secret storyline? Seems like a cool way to heighten stakes, because logically if rescues can actually happen then they would just have really high leveled people roll through everything, so forcing a secret plot to play the same way can keep those high levels on their toes. TLDR: Riley creates the BS, Anna (Team Leader) helps make the most of that BS. + rescue shenanigans should rescues actually work
Lepoofo
2023-08-24 00:39:06 +0000 UTCI'm going to ignore whether or not rescues are coming back and focus on the mechanics. And Then There Was One and A Girl Worth Fighting For are too similar, with one clearly worse. They both pretty much just allow the character to join in on the rescue in a worst case scenario. But the former makes it happen as the default should you lose and requires nothing, while the latter requires preemptively giving up. While Sole Survivor is a bit of a poor tradeoff as you have to give up on reviving your friends to trigger it, at least you get something in exchange and I can see the logic behind it.
Ziggy
2023-08-24 00:29:19 +0000 UTCI have added them
Bobby Thom
2023-08-24 00:17:00 +0000 UTCTo my mind “The Girl Next Door” is the clear choice. It’s active, so we get the drama of watching her choose to use it from deathwatch, it can drive more character moments between her and our protagonist, and “The player will not perceive time passing between choosing to end the game, and the rescuers arriving.” seems to suggest it doesn’t end deathwatch.
Ambrose
2023-08-24 00:12:56 +0000 UTCHi can we look at her stats grit, savvy etc before offering our thoughts
Anthony Goh
2023-08-24 00:06:58 +0000 UTCLove how we seem to be shifting towards rescue plots now. You’ve been holding onto that gun for a while and I’m stoked to see it finally fired. Plus, it gives the high-level players something to do that’s not immediately plot relevant but still important.
Ambrose
2023-08-24 00:06:12 +0000 UTC
