Posted July 13, 2020 by luciellaes
Updates! The jam closed yesterday, but after sleeping on it, pacing back and forth a little and getting some great suggestions from the Game Dunk Discord (special thanks to Blu_Phire!), I've made several tweaks to the text, especially to the final showdown. The core concept hasn't changed, but there were a few smaller things I wanted to improve on, namely:
The main thing I was trying to solve - which I hopefully have - is to clarify the story behind the final showdown, where the more powerful character takes lead while the mentor (or potentially the student who failed to surpass the master) puts themself at risk to defend their companion. This was partially represented in the dice mechanics, but I think the adjusted set-up questionnaire also makes the intent clearer. I considered and discarded a few options to allow players to lean into this theme further, ultimately deciding to leave this up to chance (albeit slightly weighted against them) - much as the trope makes good entertainment, it's a little problematic at times and I don't want to glorify intentional self-sacrifice in my own narratives.
I think that's about it from me, but if you have any other feedback, I'd love to hear it!