Boons and Banes

[squakhawk 7303]

Boons and Banes

This thread covers the stance currently taken on the leeway given with lore on it’s more passive “boons and banes”, which are benefits or detriments that your lore may have.

 

 

Boons

There is an unlimited plethora of benefits you can grant to your lore. Whether it be a CA that increases your strength, or a material which is stronger than steel. Genuinely, this feedback cannot cover every single facet of what you can do- but the ST can give as much good advice as possible.

 

More in tune with CAs or MAs, some bonuses are things which give a character passive benefits. This can be things like increases in strength, mental fortitude, natural armour, etc. When writing your bonuses, be sure to try and avoid mary-sue perfectionism with your writing. Such as perfect disguises for CAs, or orc (maybe even greater) strength on an otherwise unchanged character. These can make for rather uninteresting bonuses which only serve as an OOC convenience. Either to avoid any form of intrigue, or to try and have an auto-win in any form of battle. Generally, the ST will allow limited increase, change, or benefit in these circumstances. Limited polymorphs, minor (at best) passive strength increases, mental shielding only if it makes sense. Anything greater, should come as an ability, or with some active cost. When writing passive boons, always put priority to if something makes sense, then adding the boon afterward. Never make a boon and write the lore to justify it existing. 

 

Passive bonuses should avoid gimmicks. Gimmicky things can be like rolling benefits, interference with mechanics (such as seeing through blocks, invisibility, breathing underwater, etc…). While something like enhanced perception or nightvision is okay, something that justifies borderline metagaming would not be. Such as ‘detecting’ magics, cas, etc. on another person, or being able to detect some sort of attack, casting, or so on within a certain radius can be distasteful as well. Consider as well the limitation of minecraft mechanics. Currently, there is no way to mechanically represent underwater breathing, lack of food, invisibility, and so on. Please do not rely on this or try to incorporate this into your lore.

 

Some boons like ‘immortality’ can be thrown out willy-nilly, or even certain levels of strength. While yes, your ability could be justified because you can potentially perform it mundanely, it doesn’t justify doing it for someone who can’t. As an example of what that means precisely, just because someone is a CA, doesn’t entitle them to orc strength. While one could be an orc, and with the CA, that doesn’t mean the CA should have orc strength inherently. Often this excuse is piled onto lore, justifying abilities by saying “But what if I was under these certain conditions, then I could do it and my lore couldn’t?”. An example of this could be you have a spell which blocks an arrow for free. One could justify that spell as saying, oh, it’s the same thing as having a shield. The fact of the matter is, it’s not. Because you don’t have to make/acquire a shield, equip one, or be hindered by one in any manner. There’s no setup- it devalues those who actually incorporate that as part of their roleplay.

As before, the same goes for immortality. Yes, you can turn off aging with Midpoint Theorum. Yes, you can simply ignore aging as an elf or as a human, and be entirely unaffected. That doesn’t mean these things are worthless. For those who go that extra mile and do care about their roleplay, these are big, implicative things which can be major motivations for characters. Don’t take or use them lightly.

 

Overall, take into account as well with boons what other lorepieces may take to accomplish them. Carbarum is harder than steel, and is exceedingly rare and difficult to refine- is your stronger-than-steel metal justified in some way that it doesn't invalidate carbarum? Does your lore grant a free easy-access immortality that those of Frost Witches or Azdrazi have to earn with great difficulty? Does your lore just do what another lore does, but better? With less cost? We want to avoid powercreep and making sure that each lore is nuanced and interesting. This does not mean some lorepieces simply hold certain boons hostage as the only lore that can use them, it just means to take things in your own unique direction with lore rather than trying to improve upon others.

 

 

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Banes

Banes with lore are things which scale back a lore’s power, or utility. While you’re practically unlimited with what drawbacks you can give to your lore, there are a lot of things to consider.

 

Direct Drawbacks 

Direct drawbacks are things which directly make a lore less favourable. Maybe your CA-submission is weak to a certain material, or that they are vulnerable to command and manipulation. Those two are very different things- things which can vastly change how a lorepiece functions, or where it’s real power comes from. When writing direct drawbacks, make sure to consider a few things. Make sure to consider that your drawbacks will try to be negated, meaning they can be prevented. Like with a sound sensitivity, just having a user wearing earmuffs. Or with a ‘too hot to touch’, just wearing gloves.  You want to make sure that your drawback is not available to be fully ignored, or in some circumstances, ignored at all. Make sure that people understand your lore has a definitive, non-negotiable drawback which balances its power out and keeps the game of give and take fair. When writing direct drawbacks, while you can include as many as you like, make sure to include at least some form of mundane counterplay. Not all players utilize lore to the same extent as one another, and should have some, at least mild, fairness when in combat with one another. Reward those who plan, prepare, and execute, and give something token to those who don’t. 

 

Indirect Drawbacks

Indirect Drawbacks are things which indirectly make a lore less favourable. An indirect drawback can be as example, a CA without a disguise. Or a magic which takes away more slots than usual, or makes people ineligible for certain other lores- even feeding mechanics where a lorepiece requires to feed on other players in some sense. More on a meta scale of events, an indirect drawback is something which can be alright if done correctly, and very bad if done poorly. Often indirect drawbacks go through a route which inhibits roleplay, and shuts off an entire avenue from some types of roleplay in whole. This leads to the “Sleeper Rally” effect we see from some lorepieces, where a CA or Magic is entirely unfavourable to be or utilize unless in combat. Thus, they only come around for combat. This in practicality, kills a character and any use they might have outside of combative or potentially-combative scenarios. This is what often leads to the infamous “spook CT rp” where dark mages who had no way to blend into society or rp with others would meet in Cloud Temple, because it was the only place they could. While there is argument for evil-guys staying in their evil-lair, these people are condemned to roleplaying with strictly their own coven, and worse, only being able to kidnap, kill, and hunt people for their roleplay. This locks a lorepiece into a horrible corner where it becomes less interesting to play, and dull to use. 

 

Trade Drawbacks

Trade drawbacks are things which can be both a boon, and a bane. They’re a toss up of something negative in some circumstances, positive in others. These can be extremely interesting to utilize in your lore if done correctly. Perhaps it gears your lore to use some form of ability or passive in combat, and makes them less favourable out of combat. Maybe the inverse, where an ability has very potent use in something like say, forging, but is a drawback otherwise and unfavourable to use in combat outside of very niche circumstances. These can be interesting, just be wary of the power you imbue into these types of banes.