Dev Diary #4 - Lights and Shadows

Apologies for the late diary. Was a bit tired and down yesterday. But here it is now, the Dev Diary on Fire of Rebellion's Condition system. As before, this diary reflects how things stand and are not final.

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Lights and Shadows

These represent emotional conditions rather than physical. As the stories this game aims to tell are more about emotional journeys than the physicality of conflict, physical statuses are not mechanically tracked while emotional ones are through Shadows and Lights.

Shadows are negative emotional states that impose disadvantage on certain moves - meaning, you roll 3d6 and take the lowest two on certain moves while that Shadow is marked. There are five in total: Exhausted, Guilty, Hopeless, Isolated, & Insecure.

Lights are the opposite. They are positive emotional states that grant advantage on certain moves - roll 3d6 and take the highest two. Light Shadows, there are also five in total: Inspired, Righteous, Optimistic, Embraced, and Resolute.

Speaking less mechanically, Lights are good for you, representing an emotional state that allows you to move forward, to overcome what you need to. Shadows are generally bad, representing the emotions that hold us back, that keep us paralyzed and unable to act.

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Pairs

Lights and Shadows come in pairs. Light-Shadow pairs affect the same set of Basic Moves. 

Exhausted and Inspired both affect speak truth of legends and live the stories of the past.

Guilty and Righteous both affect assess the situation and weigh words and actions.

Hopeless and Optimistic both affect look for hope and embrace the magic.

Isolated and Embraced both affect inspire, comfort, or support and persuade, provoke, or coerce.

Insecure and Resolute both affect battle an imminent threat and assert yourself, your identity, or your beliefs.

Paired Lights and Shadows are also mutually exclusive - if, for example, you have Inspired marked when you mark Exhausted, you must clear Inspired in addition to marking Exhausted. The reverse is also true - if you would mark Embraced while Isolated is marked, clear Isolated and mark Embraced as normal.

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Clearing Lights and Shadows

Each Light and Shadow may be cleared through a variety of ways. The first of which would be to mark their counterpart, as I described above, due to paired Lights and Shadows being mutually exclusive. Some basic moves give the option to clear a condition and the GM may clear one as a hard move.

All Lights and Shadows have clear conditions that, if met within the fiction, allow you to clear a Shadow or command you to clear a Light.

You may clear Exhausted if you break a cycle for the better. You must clear Inspired if you repeat past mistakes.

You may clear Guilty if you atone for your mistakes. You must clear Righteous when you inflict wrongful harm.

You may clear Hopeless if you take comfort in the ordinary. You must clear Optimistic when you sacrifice your ideals.

You may clear Isolated when you give honest affection. You must clear Embraced when you lie to a loved one.

You may clear Insecure when you prove yourself. You must clear Resolute when you run from your problems.

In Masks: A New Generation, conditions are cleared usually by the PCs doing something that is probably stupid or reckless, reflecting the game's focus on teenage life, which is full of kids getting emotional and reckless and doing things they probably shouldn't.

I went in the opposite direction here. The clear conditions here actively encourage people to clear their Shadows and discourage them from clearing their Lights.

Some tables may enjoy the power fantasy, the idea of being able to achieve a perfect victory without sacrificing any of your lights and going through this emotional turmoil. I am not going to stop them.

But if you want to experience the emotional journey, I encourage you to take advantage of the setting - you are in a Rebellion, fighting against an Empire. And that is never easy. The kids' shows that inspired this game may tone it down for their audience, but you cannot accuse them of making the fight easy for the heroes.

Can you prove yourself when you're up against an Empire's might? Can you break the Empire's chains without snapping the necks of the desperate? Can you take comfort in anything if the Empire destroys and corrupts everything? Can you afford the price demanded to atone?

If you're playing this game right, you will be asking these questions. Some of the answers will be positive. But not all. And that's something we have to contend with.

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Exceeding Lights and Shadows

Rarely, you may have all Lights or all Shadows marked. Sometimes, you will be asked to mark another.

As I said earlier, Lights represent the things that help us move forward. They provide strength and direction to us. Representing this, marking a Sixth Light would translate to marking Experience instead (normally gained on rolling a 6- or as the result of certain moves).

Shadows, on the other hand, hold us back, and the consequences of marking a Sixth Shadow is much more dire. A PC that would mark a Sixth Shadow must remove themselves from the scene in some way. They may flee, they may freeze, or they may lose consciousness, to name a few examples. The exact manner isn't important, as long as it makes sense in the fiction. The important part is that the PC ceases to be an active participant in the scene for some time.

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Moves

To close off, we have the Light and Shadow moves, each based on the number of Lights or Shadows a PC has marked.

The Shadow move is called lose heart, which is Fire of Rebellion's move for taking harm. Unless you're a masochist who likes drama (like I am) this is a move you want to roll low on. Consequences for losing heart can involve lashing out at allies, granting openings to enemies, marking more Shadows, losing control, or leaving the scene entirely.

The Light move is called call on the magic. You invoke the power in the world to gain a piece of knowledge or to gain access to incredible power for a time. Notably, the magic acts through you, not for you. It will not make your enemies disappear, it will not solve Imperial oppression, it will not stop magic's own decay and exploitation. But ask for knowledge or power, and you will receive.

Compared to embrace the magic, which puts a player's fate in the hands of the GM, the player remains in control for this move. The exact nature of the magical boon is decided by the GM, but rather than a surrender to the forces around you, this is a deliberate invocation of them.

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I hope you guys enjoyed reading through the dev diary, and I hope you find the concept of Lights and Shadows interesting. As always, if you comments or questions, post it in the comments section or ask me on Twitter @JohannTeves.