Nibiru Update #18 - The Dreadlands
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 09:24:58 AM
Hello Vagabonds!
Seems like we are still riding the wave when it comes to funding :) we are quickly closing in on those dice, and setting sights on the Science of Nibiru annex!
As we get to the final days, we expect funding to ramp up. We have our stretch goals set up, but then if there's anything you are thinking that'd be great to have (whether it is more adventures, more art, a Narrators' Screen, or anything), it's always good to send us a message or leave a comment!
From the get go, we've wanted to get the community involved to make the game better, so make sure to speak your mind!
Today I'll be unveiling the third Habitat of Nibiru. That is, the Dreadlands.
The Dreadlands are not a real place. In truth, they represent a piece of fiction—one that has been carefully woven to the point it seems real. The aromas, the sounds, the texture and touch. Yet there are not meant to evoke soothing memories. This piece of fiction is a tragedy, a horror story, and a tale of woe all at the same time.
When Dreadlanders remember, they hurt. They are the one type of Vagabond that dreads seeing those memories back. At the same time, however, they are the most hopeful about their stay in Nibiru—since nothing can be as bad as their past tenures.
What they went through was not without purpose. Within Dreadlanders nests a strange entity that feeds off of their bad recollections. Part of what it means to play a Dreadlander entails communicating with this entity and establishing a relationship of mutual benefit. But, you'll know more about that in the book :)
When you pick to play a Dreadlander, you'll be playing to the tune of a downwards spiral. Whenever they trigger a Memory, Dreadlanders get penalties—not bonuses. This is not due to them not being capable (they are probably some of the boldest, most resilient souls in Nibiru), but because the act of remembering hurts them, draining them of their will to commit to anything that could evoke those dreaded recollections.
At the same time, with each filled Journal Sheet, the entity that lives inside them grows in power. It is due to this that your personal relationship with it matters deeply; as you crumble to dust, the one thing you can trust in might be this odd creature you've been sharing your body with all this time.
That's more or less it for today :) the Dreadlands are one of the only "kinda supernatural" thing you'll see in the setting of Nibiru, yet they allow for really dramatic tales of personal horror to unfold.
There are two more habitats to cover :) so sit tight!
Nibiru Update #17 - Pilgrims of the Core
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 05:18:22 AM
Hello Vagabonds!
Wow! That was a crazy climb from the weekend! Just like that, we are halfway through to the next Stretch Goal. For those who have just joined us, you should check out The Pilgrimage (which is a competition that nets you free adventures in exchange for helping us spread the word about the project). You can find more info in this update
Today I wanted to delve deeper into the cults of Nibiru, and (speaking of the Pilgrimage) to give an overview of the largest religious institution in the Skyless World: that of the Pilgrims of the Core.
The Pilgrims believe the station to be a living thing: Its Core, the heart of the world, an immortal entity worthy of worship. Their beginnings are based on the cults of dawn, with a shared belief in the idea that humanity was separated from the divine sometime in the distant past. This fall, however, is reversible. The Pilgrims believe that self reflection, and the acceptance of Nibiru's divinity, can prepare oneself for the last journey—the Pilgrimage, which sees hundreds of faithful leaving their homes behind to travel towards the Core.
What happens there? Nobody knows. No Pilgrims have returned from a Pilgrimage, safe for one of the first thirteen original Pilgrims (whom is said was charged with spreading the word, thus being the founding mother of the religion).
The Pilgrims believe that upon reaching the center of the Skyless World, their faith will be tested, and those who are worthy will become one with the station. Their bodies, lifted and transformed into stuff divine—steel, cable, power and light.
Within the Pilgrims there's several factions, representing different philosophies. There's the Mentis tradition, which reveres the work of the thirteenth Pilgrim, stating that the path to divinity is reserved to those who spend their lives spreading the word.
There's the Corpus tradition, which seeks to replace their bodies with metal parts to gradually make themselves in the image of the station. There's also more obscure traditions, centered around the other original Pilgrims, and some other traditions that have even forbidden, such as that of the Lightbringers. But that's something we'll talk more about in the book (and in the Chronicles of the Pilgrimage adventures!).
The Pilgrims tend to utilize redesigned Hauler AIs (walking cargo holds that are used in Penumbra) as wandering chapels, moving from one settlement to the other to preach their teachings.
Nibiru Update #16 - Revelations
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Dec 17, 2018 at 05:48:33 AM
Hello Vagabonds! Hope you had a great weekend :)
Saturday and Sunday saw us not just unlocking the second stretch goal, but also going past the 300 backers line! Woop woop! That's a grand achievement, and a great position in which to start the third week.
The second half of the Kickstarter is underway. This means that growth will continue to be relaxed until the last days, in which we expect the classic spike to show up. Kickstarters tend to have a valley curve, where most pledges happen at the beginning and at the end.
Today I wanted to talk about Revelations. I briefly addressed them here and there, but I honestly think they're one of the coolest parts of Nibiru.
Revelations were designed with two particular objectives in mind. For starters, I felt like if the Memory mechanics were going to be the main engine of the game, I couldn't just stop there.
There's a lot of interesting potential, to toy around with how people write, what they write, and how it affects the world. I wanted to get more value out of the Memory mechanic.
The second objective was that I wanted the players to feel like what they wrote matter. Not everyone finds writing easy, and I didn't want to see the "I Remember" bit of every Memory becoming a slog.
So what are Revelations? They are basically a "power" of sorts (the effects of which are always linked to Memories), which you can unlock when reaching the end of a Journal Sheet (so, after writing eight Memories). They cost Memory Points to acquire, and there are several things that make them cheaper to acquire (for example, having some negative memories in your sheet, as well as writing memories of a certain length).
Revelations can be Passive (meaning they have either a permanent or a one-time-only effect) or Active (meaning you can spend a few Influence Points each time you want to use them).
...and that's basically it! Now, to give you an idea of how they're fleshed out, I'll give you some samples of Passive and Active revelations:
Nibiru Update #15 - Gravity, Part 2
over 5 years ago
– Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 04:54:56 AM
Vagabonds!
We are now officially halfway through the campaign, and—BAM! Second stretch goal unlocked! Roll in the fifth stretch goal. Dum-durum-duuuuum...
...which means all pledges containing regional adventures (Vagabonds and up) get a physical copy as well as the PDF. Awesome, ain't it? :)
This will also affect the Regional Adventure add-on, which means it'll go from being "PDF" to "Physical and PDF". The adventures are short enough that (unless you buy a tonne of them!) they won't push up your shipping costs.
With that said, lets talk about them Gravity mechanics.
When a Nibiru story kicks off, unless specified otherwise, your Vagabond will be acclimatized to the locale they are in. In your character sheet, you'll find a scale that determines your character's tolerance to their region's gravity. It looks kinda like this (since this is just a draft for playtesting purposes):
The idea is that you'll generally remain in your stable zone, except when you travel far from your region. This is where the map you've just unlocked comes in :)
The map is separated in several concentric regions, which go up in increments of 0.2G. So, if I travel from a city-state in the 0.8 region, via an Ascendant, to a settlement in the 1.6 region, I can check the map and see that I've moved four regions away from the Core. I then change the little mark from "Stable Zone" to the fourth space in the scale. This means that the character will now suffer a -1 to all their rolls related to interaction with the environment.
At the end of each session, if the deems it appropriate, the mark will go back one space towards the stable zone, signifying that the Vagabond's body slowly adapting to their new environment. There are situations in which this might not be the case (which we discuss in the Narrator's chapter in the book), but the mechanics are supposed to convey the ideas we spoke about in part 2.
Krajj, which has a big part in the setting, is also given consideration. Krajj is a greyish paste that can be burned and inhaled, which helps regulate your body's functions in the face of pressure changes. It was one of the main factors that made the colonization of Penumbra and Umbra a reality.
Ascendants (which we mention before as being the elevators used to travel in a matter of minutes from Antumbra an Penumbra) have to, by law, pump large amounts of Krajj into their traveler compartments to make sure people do not pass out/suffer from internal hemorrhage/experience other nasty stuff due to the fast artificial gravity switch.
That's all for today! I'll be back on Monday with the next update. Until then, let's make the weekend count, get us over 300 backers (wow!) and push onward to nail that mysterious, high-quality, shiny cuneiform dice set...
See you soon Vagabonds!
Nibiru Update #14 - Gravity, Part 1
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 05:01:41 AM
Hello Vagabonds!
We are THIS close to unlocking that awesome map! Let's keep pushing! I'll remind y'all that we have a "social contest" of sorts called the Pilgrimage. It's built around a four-part series of adventures which follows a traveling caravan of Pilgrims on the way to the Core.
Each of the episodes can be played as a one-shot, with each one starts closer to the Core than the one before. With that in mind, we calculated the distance to the Core (in steps) at the start of each adventure:
To partake in the Pilgrimage, enter here, use your Kickstarter email address, and help us spread the word by sharing the tweets, posts, etc. as seen in that web-page. Each action gives you steps in return, and the more steps you get, the more adventures from the Pilgrimage you unlock, in PDF, for free! You can reference the image above to see how many steps you need to unlock each chapter.
With that in mind, I wanted to talk about something that is directly related to our next Stretch Goal. That is, Gravity! It's a bit long, so we'll do it in two parts. First, the science stuff, today. And the actual mechanics tomorrow :)
We've stated before that Nibiru is a hard sci-fi game, and with that we've given a lot of care to the science behind the station. Although most of this is reflected via the world-building of the setting, the true mechanical implications of this can be seen in how we handle artificial gravity.
The inhabited zones of Nibiru feature a wide gradient of artificial gravity, from 0.7G (70% the gravity of Earth) to 2.1G (210% the gravity of Earth). This greatly affects how people live—with them developing in different ways depending on where they live.
Humans in Antumbra tend to grow a bit taller than those on Earth. Their muscles are less developed (since they have less weight to support) and their hearts are a bit atrophied, due to them not needing to pump with as much pressure. This is great if you live there, but if you travel down to Penumbra and Umbra, your body will suffer from the much higher artificial gravity. A human from the 0.7 travelling to the 2.1 will weight three times more than what they weighted back home, and at the same time their body won't be prepared to support itself. Not to mention that there'll be a severe risk of passing out due to blood not getting to the right parts!
Even some of the history of Antumbra can be explained when considering the physiology of the Arku (the people of the Core Sectors). For example, the fact that they consume significantly less (since they have slower metabolisms) most certainly helped their societies keep a sustainable resource consumption rate. The idea of a "society of abundance" relied not just on resources being readily available, but also on the Arku's biology, and their low caloric requirements.
In Penumbra and Umbra, the opposite is true. Growing up in the 1.3G, the 1.7G, and even the 2G band means you'll be shorter than the average Earthling (due to the world's weight on you). You'll also develop stronger muscles, as well as a more robust heart. This also means that, since your metabolism is faster, you'll need to consume more calories than normal, and your lifespan will be shorter (due to the increased degradation rate of your body).
For the Enesu (the inhabitants of Penumbra and Umbra), travelling to Antumbra is also risky business. If the body does not adapt to the lower artificial gravity in time, the Enesu could suffer brain hemorrhage and other nasty stuff due to their abnormal heart rates. Interacting with the environment in Antumbra would be a strange experience, since things weight less and (in turn) you are stronger than normal.
Tune again tomorrow to know how this translates into the game's mechanics!
