Hello everyone! New typos and clarifications manual out. With some new additional fixes!
Added a Content Warning section (very important)
Added Social Violence options in the starting Dungeon
Also clarified the phase change in the starting dungeon
Added Attachments for each Monster in the Dungeon (it's intended that they can be influenced)
Health now also covers a being's mental wellbeing, so "mental attacks" dealing dmg to Health (such as the Logic Bomb) makes more sense. This also means taking away Health/dealing dmg as a consequence for social activities makes more sense. The two damage types that fit mental trauma the best are magick and crushing.
Shadow Shrike Blade now also works with Whips and Sabers.
NPC side of Flanking, Cover, etc.
Fix more typos and errors
Focus on clarifications
Removed the Repetition Law from social violence (but still follow fiction!)
Violence
Deny Violence (both Parry and Dodges) have a few more new options attached to them by default, which should help Wanderers know when to use them in the fiction, and also successes from them don't feel like fictional dead ends, but rather, catapult the world to the next potential Telegraph.
Clarified A LOT of the technicks in the Rules Manual to have clearer fictional triggers, easier for people to visualize.
World Beings
Fixed some more Typos
Peerless WBs award Awakening Stage + 3 XP now.
Balancing Technicks and Magicks Against Context
One of the core design conceits of 10k Swords is that everyday is an "adventuring day." Just going to work, having to deal with people, with the world, is a tiring affair. Saps you. Deteriorating mental health can damage your actual Health, did you not know? Every day we drink coffees and milkteas to regenerate our Health and our Volition.
Keep the following tenets in mind:
Imagery First: When designing the Technicks and Magicks, what they look like in the fiction is paramount. Think of move sequences, techniques, katas. What it looks like in the fiction will overwhelm what it looks like in the mechanics, because the mechanics is the fiction. A technick that summons sonic waves will be very difficult to parry, a gun firing a sizzling beam of flame is going to singe and burn the grass around it.
Bespoke And Distinct. These Technicks are not allowances. They're more of... catapults. Someone can attempt something without the Technick, but the outcome will not be the same. Someone that knows the Technick can do the fictional trigger and have the special effect of that Technick happen.
Real Technicks, Not Paper Buttons. Technicks are written with their triggers be the real thing that happens in the Fiction because I don't want to have the feeling of having "Paper Buttons" (I don't hate that design choice, just not the goal for this game specifically). I want players to move and attempt to do things in the fiction that make sense for the Fiction of their Martial Art, just that some specific movements have special effects. Keep this in mind.
Things like committing violence and denying violence are things that happen in the fiction. That's why a lot of the triggers are "When you commit violence by..." to denote that it's a specific imagery or visual of committing violence. A real technique being performed to deal harm.
Balancing: The core balancing mechanic will be Breath. The more Breath it takes to use, the stronger the effect or the more automatic things it should allow. Breath 1-2 might still necessitate attacks, while Breath 3+ might straight up be direct effects, unless it targets a lot of people and so on. When it comes to balancing, I try not to have too much damage stacking and Skill adjustment stacking (because by Skill 16 you're likely to succeed most of your Checks in that Skill). It's more interesting to have real effects and real in fiction things happening instead of relying on damage boosters, to hit boosters, and so on. They work for foundational level, but I try to be weirder and realer about them when it comes to the Technicks. It's a TTRPG, we've got some leeway!
Breath Balancing
The only true form of balancing in this game is going to be Breath Balancing. The costing of effects. To make things easy, focus on the fact that getting a true Rest is very difficult (even in "safe" areas like cities. When was the last time you've had a real Rest, working in between jobs?) and even then a real Rest only gets back 1 Breath.
Technicks and Magicks are costed like so:
1 Breath is a common thing to do, but already very heavy (considering that Breath is also your resource for Healing)
2 Breath is going to be a heavy cost. Chunks out a large part of a Wanderer's resources.
3 Breath is going to be very heavy. Using this Technick/Magick costs essentially 3 Rests or 36 hours to get back truly.
4+ Breath are for powerful, important, and maybe even fictionally critical Technicks/Magicks. They're not meant to be used for the average "adventuring day."
All Healing requires Breath. This means how long a Wanderer can go on depends on what resources are available to them. This dwindling tension wherein Breath is the core single line is the heart and soul of the gameplay of a Wanderer. How deep should you go into this tomb? How far should you chase after this CEO? How deep should you unravel this plot before the strings snap and your luck runs out and you're completely without vital winds and at the brink of death?