Warning: Pre-Alpha
This game is currently in pre-alpha, and at this time, I do not recommend running a game in it yet. Every single game mechanic and piece of lore is subject to potentially breaking changes.
Thank you for your interest in this game! You can follow its development at https://www.youtube.com/@trekiros
-Trek
Flare Fall - Game Rules
Player Primer
Flare Fall is a Table-Top Role Playing Game where you play survivors 20 years after a massive Solar Flare turns a sci-fi world into a post-apo world in a single moment. To create a character, follow these steps:
A shared story. First, read the basic information about the world of Flare Fall, so you can get a good idea of what types of stories can be told in this world. Then, discuss with other players and with your Plot Twister, what kind of goal or origin your characters will share, to figure out why you're going on this adventure together.
Are you a crew of survivors, just trying to make it to next year? Hired guns tasked with protecting some cargo? Explorers who've just discovered a secret hidden under the ash? A group of raiders planning your next hit? Prisoners trying to escape? Merchants on a road trip through the wasteland?
Your character's identity. The second step: what is your role within this team? Are you a brute, who will intimidate half of the party's enemies and kill the other half? A scientist whose expertise is crucial to your mission? The face, who represents your party when talking with non-player characters? A doctor who can take care of the party's wounds (the visible ones, and then the other ones too)?
You can find some helpful character prompts in chapter II.
Your character sheet. When you've figured all of that, go toy with your character sheet! The integrated app should guide you through the process and present you with the choices you'll need to make.
Here are the 5 core principles for this game. They explain what kind of experience this game attempts to create, and how it goes about it.
Problem Solving
The obstacles in the players' way should be ones that can be overcome through creativity and wits.
Ideally, the players should want to try a bunch of different ideas before they resort to "can I roll [x]?"
In practice, this means empowering the players with plenty of versatile tools and abilities, so they can interact with the scene in different ways.
This game should also provide the Plot Twister with many ideas for encounters and adventures which promote this kind of play (WIP).
Tactics
The game should reward players who can think on their feet, analyze a dangerous situation and adapt their plan to it.
Ideally, a player should never feel like they have to take the same sequence of actions in two different encounters.
In practice, this means designing enemies and obstacles which can create situations where there is an optimal choice for the players, but that choice is not necessarily obvious, and what that choice is can change from one moment to the next.
Teamwork
This is a collaborative game, so the team dynamics should be at the forefront of everyone's minds.
Ideally, in combat, on most of the players' turns, something should happen that helps another player. A turn where the only thing that happens is that enemies take damage, should be rare.
Out of combat, this means overcoming obstacles should take more than one person to succeed, most of the time.
In practice, this means providing options for players to fulfill different, complementary roles with low overlap between them, both in and outside of combat.
Character Expression
This is a game about incarnating a fictional character and experiencing their story through their eyes.
Ideally, a character's personality and aesthetic should shine through every single action they take. If you're a juggernaut, you're not just attacking: you're attacking like a juggernaut. You're not just talking, you're talking like a juggernaut. You're not just tinkering, you're tinkering like a juggernaut.
In practice, for the players, this means being given abilities, in and out of combat, which fit their character's concepts.
For the Plot Twister, this means providing plenty of ideas for encounters and scenarios which involve big decisions, and moral dilemmas, so that they can never stop asking their players "what kind of survivors do YOU want to be?"
Accessibility
This game should not assume the players' interest, and punish them for not knowing about some deep, hidden interaction between obscure rules. Instead, it should try to earn the players' interest and attention by being easy to learn and operate.
Ideally, a player should be able to meaningfully participate, without haven to even read the rules of the game, and the tools provided to the Plot Twister should be intuitive and work right out the gate.
In practice, this means providing a fully integrated web app, which guides the players and the Plot Twister through the experience of playing and running this game.
In order to produce this experience, this game has three main interwoven systems:
- Combat: played in a structured, turn-based manner, to create a satisfying level of tactics.
- Problem-solving: played in a loose, freeform manner, to make space for the creativity of both the players and their Plot Twister.
- Crafting: played in a structured, but freeform manner, so it can enhance the other two forms of play.