Dev Diary #7 - The Princess, the War-Child, and the Beacon

Hello again! Welcome to Dev Diary #7, the 2nd dev diary where I talk about the playbooks that will appear in Fire of Rebellion. If you missed the first one where I discussed the themes and mechanics of the Orphan, Chosen, and Knight, check it out here.

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The Princess

You were born into privilege. Sheltered, pampered, and wanted for almost nothing. But if you had it your way, you’d be out there, kicking ass and taking names. You’d be kicking Imperial butt, answering to no one but yourself. So you left to do your own thing and joined up with this crew. But you find yourself with a new host of constraints limiting your independence.

The Princess' story is about privilege, taking charge, and refusing to let people tell you what to do. It's also about breaking away from people and structures trying to shelter and smother you. They likely (but not necessarily) lack real world experience but make up for it by not taking shit.

Inspirations include Toph Beifong from Avatar: the Last Airbender and Princess Glimmer from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Both of them have extraordinarily privileged lives and overbearing parental figures that disapprove of their reckless and disrespectful behaviors. They also both kick a lot of ass.

The Princess always starts with the Restraining Hand move. Even you realize you need a voice of reason, who is always one of your crewmates. This helps you aid them, but also helps them thwart you. If you're successfully thwarted, you mark experience, so you always stand to benefit. Your restraining hand may change over time, depending on the Faith you have in your crewmates.

Other Princess moves include:

• Easily underestimated: Battling threats that do not respect you is easier for you.
• Don't freak out: A move to get authority figures to overlook something by downplaying the situation. Be careful, as if you don't actually solve the problem, it will get worse.
• Prim and proper: A way to use your privilege to get your way.
• Stop treating me like a kid: This allows you to roll + Poet to thwart people when they try to aid, thwart, inspire, comfort, or support, or persuade, provoke, or coerce you in ways that make you feel belittled or infantilized.
• I sound like mom: A move that allows you to grow into yourself or clear some emotional issues if you give advice you think an authority would give.

The Princess is not a terribly complex playbook, but the archetype itself is pretty straightforward, and I'm very happy with that.

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The War-Child

War is all you’ve ever known. You are too young to remember a time before, when the world was unbroken and people were whole. War would make corpses of all... but not you. No, you were forged in its fires, tested and tempered, the blade that would be thrust into the heart of your oppressors. But once the war is over... will you know peace? Can someone who has only known war possibly dream of peace?

The War-Child is good at war, bad at thinking about what comes next. Their struggle is achieving that balance between destroying the Empire and dreaming of what comes next.

Hera Syndulla is the primary inspiration for this playbook, specifically her arc in Season 4 (mishandled as it was). Her story featured her having to balance the necessities of the Rebellion (something she doubtless excels at) and the potential of a future with her lover. I do hope players are able to handle this better than the Rebels writers did, though.

The central mechanic of the War-Child is the Dream. The Dream centers around a list of questions, each of which beginning with "When the war is won..."

At the end of every session, roll + Child. You're unlikely to roll high, as Child is the War-Child's lowest stat at the beginning of the game, and each time you miss on this roll, you shift Warrior up and Child down.

On a hit, you mark a light. Only on a 10+ do you answer one of the following questions. The answers can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, as long as you do answer the question. You can also use a 10+ to instead rewrite one of your answers later on.

"When the war is won..."

• "...who are you?"
• "...what do you do?"
• "...where do you go?"
• "...who is with you?"

At any time, if you decide that any of your answers is unachievable, you can clear it to mark potential and shift Warrior up, Child down, but lose heart if you do.

If you focus on your dream to push past a desperate situation, you can roll + answers when you look for hope.

Besides the Dream, the War-Child features the following moves:

• War mask: Shift Warrior up, Child down when you mark a Shadow. The last thing you need is for people to think you're vulnerable.
• War-forged: This reduces the impact Shadows have on you when you lose heart. That said, using this move means you would have to push through despair to mark more Shadows.
• Will to be free: A move for when you want to spell out to the bad guys just how and why they're going to lose to you in the end. On a hit, your words just might cause them to lose their nerve.
• Language of resistance: A move for covert communications using icons, symbols, code, whichever you come up with.
• Choose a side: Not everyone is comfortable with picking one side or the other. Hopefully, you can break them out of that.
• Fighting spirit: Another move that shifts Warrior up, this time using it once per scene when you defend or battle a threat.

The War-Child is all about that tension between the Warrior and the Child. The Child sees the future, but is also vulnerable without the Warrior. The Warrior has the power to end the conflict, but has no direction without the Child.

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The Beacon

If the crew is a ship at sea, then you are their compass, their stars in the sky and light on the shore. You are their moral center and source of inspiration. Though when they start ignoring you...

The Beacon strives to keep the crew together and on course. They try to maintain relationships between crewmates to make sure everything runs smoothly, and of the playbooks are the ones who make the most effort to inspire others. Expect speeches about the power of friendship.

Inspirations include Poe Dameron from The Force Awakens and Bow and Perfuma from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and it shows in their relationships with the other characters. Poe is very quick to make friends with Finn and trust in his goodness and is an able and even-tempered commander who does his best to inspire hope in his squadron, and Bow and Perfuma are practically the walking consciences of the Princess Alliance.

The core mechanic of the Beacon illustrates their role: the Heart of the Crew. When you gain this Extra, you pick one of four roles you play for the Crew: Conscience, Supporter, Companion, or Protector. Each of these impact a different move when used on a crewmate.

• Conscience affects the thwart move, allowing the target to mark a light if successful and you tell them why you interfered.
• Supporter enhances the aid move, allowing the target to always shift their stats regardless of the aid move's result.
• Companion affects the share a moment of emotional intimacy or vulnerability move that all playbooks have, and ensures that both parties grow from it.
• Protector allows you to roll + your Faith to defend a crewmate instead of + Warrior.

Through advancements, you can pick an additional role to play later on.

Besides the Heart of the Crew, the Beacon has the following moves.

• As long as there's light: Normally, if a PC is forced to remove themselves from a situation (flee, pass out, etc.), they have to do that. It's not something that can normally be prevented mechanically. This allows you to prevent that by giving them something to hold on to and rolling + your Faith in them.
• One act of kindness: Players: be nice to the NPCs. It makes the world you're in a lot less grim and hopeless. Though be strategic when you do this, as there may be unwanted consequences on a miss.
• Open heart: You try to be understanding, especially of people you don't like. Whoever you have the least Faith in, you gain Faith in them at the beginning of each session.
• A helping hand: Boosts the aid move, allowing them to mark experience on a hit. You also grow if your aid is good enough.
• As long as we're together: A move for entering battle together, granting the Beacon certain advantages if a) there's a clear leader who isn't the Beacon, b) the crew is united by common purpose, and c) you mistrust anyone in the crew.
• Worth more than you think: A boost to inspire, comfort, or support someone by telling them why they're better and deserve better than they think.

The Beacon is a light fueled by the power of friendship, so it's in the Beacon's interest to maintain those relationships otherwise the light goes out.

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I'm pretty pleased with each of these, and I hope you are too! Let me know what you guys think! The next batch of playbooks I will share will focus on the Defector and the Survivor.

One final thing: I am delighted to say I'm now looking for people to help playtest Fire of Rebellion. I plan to begin around mid-January, on Sundays at 9 am to 12 pm Philippine time (GMT +8). Planning to run one campaign, 10-15 sessions long. If you're interested in becoming a playtester, message me on twitter @JohannTeves and we can work out the details.

That's all for today!