Dev Diary # 5 - The Orphan, the Chosen, & the Knight

This is the start of a series I talk about the individual playbooks, a peak at their mechanics, the stories they're meant to tell, and the characters that inspired them.

The Orphan

You grew up under the reign of the Empire. And for one reason or the other, the Empire took your family from you. Before joining this crew, you were probably alone or with a small group of people who helped you. But now you’re here. And now you have a family again. How long until they too are taken away?

The Orphan's story revolves around themes of loss, attachment, and ultimately letting go. Traumatized by loss, when they cling to someone they cling hard and pulling them away from their attachments may involve some kicking and screaming.

This playbook is inspired by characters like Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels, Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars Original Trilogy. Their arcs revolve heavily around the loss of one or multiple parental figures and later finding them - or avenging them. They're also all crazy powerful and, when a loved one is threatened, their wrath is terrible to behold.

Their core mechanic is their Fragile Bonds - a list of names, people they aren't willing to let go. It's easy to add a name to the list (though for ease of tracking, up to four may be added) but painful to remove, requiring a roll to lose heart each time a name is removed. But while a name is on the list, the Orphan can use the Crisis Move* invoke ancient power to save a loved one from mortal peril.

As this mechanic is rather central to the Orphan, successfully clearing the list would mean changing playbooks.

*these will be covered in a future dev diary, but they are completed

The Orphan automatically gets the Seeking closure move, a move meant to help facilitate their arc into finding their lost loved ones or to find the one who took them, encouraging them to be proactive as well as reactive, giving them a free Light and +1 ongoing to help them while they commit to their path.

Other Orphan moves are: 

• Found family - A move to encourage crewmates to talk to each other and help with each other's issues, specifically enhancing the inspire, comfort, or support basic move.
• You don't know what this is like! - Being Orphaned is a unique experience. Most tragedies are for most people. Not everyone understands that, and not everyone understands the impulses born from that. So this is a way for you to shut them down when they try to stop you from seeking your loved ones - or those who took them.
• Like my father before me - Being an Orphan is not just about mourning or seeking. You can invoke them in ways that allow you to define yourself. As the Orphan is a Sage-based playbook, this move allows the Orphan to assert themselves, their identity, and their beliefs with the Sage stat instead of Warrior.
• I survived on my own - This move reflects a learned independence, your ability to take care of yourself in the absence of your family. While Isolated is marked, the Orphan gains a few advantages in play.

The Chosen

You have been chosen for greatness. Your being, your actions, your very destiny is entwined with that of the world around you. You cannot deny it, you cannot escape it. But you can choose what that means. In the end, will you choose to be a force for good?

Where the Orphan's story is about dealing with loss and attachment, the Chosen's story is about choice. While many fantasy stories like to deal with fate and destiny, they tend to ignore choice, agency, and responsibility. Really, if a character is surrounded in this much structure, planning, and preparation, choice should be accentuated. And because of all that structure, those choices should have a disproportionate affect on everything.

This playbook is inspired by Aang from Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Adora and Mara from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. These characters are struggling to fulfil their roles: defeat the Fire Lord, Balance the Planet, etc. They have been given rather clear mandates and pretty clearly defined roles, but not everything about their mandate or the nature of their role as Chosen is necessarily revealed to them. So it is with the Chosen Playbook.

The first feature of the Chosen is the Mandate. The player needs to define what, exactly, they were chosen for. You probably weren't Chosen just for the sake of choosing you (though a particularly vain Chosen may believe that). That said, the Mandate is not necessarily revealed in its entirety, and I encourage players to leave room for the GM (or better yet, cooperate with them) to create a mystery behind it.

Along with the Mandate is the Chosen's Guide. They are a prominent NPC tied to the Chosen, to instruct them and help them along their path. Think Avatar Roku from Avatar or Light Hope from She-Ra. They will (try to) answer the Chosen's questions, and dissuade them from reckless action or from actions that interfere with the Mandate, whether the Chosen realizes or not.

The core mechanic of the Chosen is the Destiny Track and the Destiny Signs. The Chosen doesn't really have playbook moves as the other playbooks do - which means Destiny Signs are (so far) exclusive to the Chosen.

There are five in total, and each is unlocked by filling the Destiny Track. The player defines the conditions which cause them to mark the Destiny track. They may, for example, restore a magical nexus, gain specific cultural insights, complete certain puzzles, or retrieve certain artifacts.

The five Destiny Signs are

• Knowledge of Ages - Tap into the memory of the world and ask the GM any question.
• Otherworldly Insight - Ask about an NPC's intentions directly without having to puzzle it together.
• Avatar of Hope - Put on a display to inspire your allies and give your enemies pause.
• Words of Power - Your words have weight. Be careful what you say, because people will believe you.
• Legendary Might - This grants you access to the crisis move overwhelm the opposition.

Each is a powerful move in its own right, but requires marking the Destiny Track to use, speeding you along to your destiny. You are not obligated to use them, but you are encouraged to engage with them in ways fitting to your character.

In addition to the moves they give you, when each Destiny Sign is marked, the GM will reveal a new piece of the Chosen's mandate. After all five are marked, the next time the Destiny track is fulfilled, the GM will reveal the entirety of your mandate.

The Knight

You come from a long, honored tradition, a noble Order bound by a strict code. When the Empire first arose, your Order opposed it. You are the inheritor of that conflict, the heir to that tradition. In these uncertain times, will you preserve this tradition for the next generation? Or will you let it burn?

Where the Orphan is about attachment and the Chosen is about choice, the Knight is about Law, its evolution in trying times, our ever-changing relationship to it, and how it enables us or hinders us from helping each other.

For those who know me, it's really no surprise that Jedi, especially survivors of Order 66, are the primary inspiration for this playbook. Kanan Jarrus from Rebels, F from Visions: the Village Bride, Cal Kestis and Cere Junda from Fallen Order are a few particular examples.

The core of the playbook is the Sacred Code: a set of rules the Knight is obliged to follow. As actual code of laws tend to be extensive and complex, the player is only obligated to write down at least 3 primary rules to follow for the sake of play. 

Breaking or adhering to this Code does not affect play in itself. But a player is rewarded if their adherence to the code - or their breach of it - helps them to defeat an enemy or help people in need. Conversely, if the Code - either one's adherence to it or their defiance - needlessly puts people in danger, then they lose heart.

Law is important, and it is important that law evolve. However, no law is more important than people.

Speaking of evolution, the laws you write for your Code are written in pencil, not ink. You are likely to change your code of laws over the course of play, especially if you find yourself breaking them often.

I discourage the use of obvious hard moral lines as easy fodder for the code of law. Your Code of law must be actively considered over the course of play. Your Knight should never consider slavery, rape, genocide, or any form of brutality. Frankly, if you as a player are engaging in such acts in play, you are not playing Fire of Rebellion.

Consider, instead, ethical questions like the following when writing and rewriting your Code.

• What constitutes as "un/disarmed" vs. an "active threat"?
• Should you ignore the more immediate danger to prepare for an incoming, greater danger?
• Who do you help when you can't help them all?
• When is violence the answer?

Besides the Code, the Knight features the following moves.

• Defender of the weak - A move that allows you to automatically defend everyone else whenever you battle an imminent threat.
• Who are you? - You know when the Jedi survivor reveals themselves to everyone's awe, just before saving the day? This is that move.
• Righteous stand - A replacement move for lose heart whenever you take on overwhelming odds in defense of innocents and your loved ones.
• Peacekeeper - A move to reward those who solve problems without swinging their swords.
• Nothing left to fear - Opposite of defender of the weak in that you use this move when you don't have to worry about protecting anyone else. It does leave you open for counterattack, so be cautious.
• This weapon is your life - A move that allows you to entrust your identity and your life to a civilian in exchange for aid. Relying on it too much, however, will put them in danger.

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I hope you enjoyed the looks into the first finished playbooks for Fire of Rebellion. There are seven more in the works and I hope to show them to you soon!

If you have any thoughts you'd like to share about the Orphan, Chosen, or Knight, please feel free to let me know. I'd love to hear what you have to say!