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95th Games: Training Stations Updates

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pogue
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95th Games: Training Stations Updates Sept 12, 2023 20:31:03 GMT -5

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Post by pogue on Sept 12, 2023 20:31:03 GMT -5

For the 95th Games (and hopefully onwards), we've updated Training Stations to more accurately reflect modern Games dynamics and structures! Additionally, we've also added in some new stations to the mix to allow tributes to vary their station choices a bit more depending on what experience/arc they're aiming for.

To gather feedback as early as possible, and to make sure everyone's voice has a chance to be heard in regards to stations, we're pairing this revamp with a feedback form that is specifically focused on the stations themselves. Our hope is that this will help us to monitor potential areas of concern with these updates during the Games, and also have solid feedback to compare to post-Games. The form will remain open throughout the Games, as well.

As a point of clarity: the chance of stations feedback being implemented for the 95th is rather low. However, this feedback will help us to build a running documentation of future stations adjustments or suggestions that future GM's can build off of moving forwards. We're hoping you're all as excited as we are for these updates!

Stations feedback form

Cheers, and as always stream Quay Dash.

pogue
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1,811 POSTS

Pronouns: He/Him
last seen May 16, 2024 14:46:09 GMT -5

Is she trying to interrupt our henna session?

95th Games: Training Stations Updates Sept 12, 2023 20:31:11 GMT -5

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Post by pogue on Sept 12, 2023 20:31:11 GMT -5

New Stations

Poison	Allows a tribute to use poisonous plants/items to coat their weapons. Provided a tribute has the necessary supplies to create poison (poisonous plants or other poison item collected from the arena), they will be able to attack with poison within their mandate. Poison will remain on the weapon for the first three attacks a tribute makes. For each of those attacks that break skin, their opponent will take +1 poison damage, and will receive the poisoned status effect the next Games day, requiring them to receive an antidote to heal themselves. -- The ability to fight with poison has been requested for a while now, so we wanted to try it out this Games! We think the requirement of having the necessary poisonous materials, the poison attacks only lasting a finite amount of rounds, and the randomized chance of breaking/not breaking skin will help keep this station in check, but we'll be monitoring it closely and adjusting if needed.
Bloodlust	A tribute's awakened killing desire supplies a damage boost to their attacks. Damage boosts will map to the tribute's overall kill total, as following: 1 kill - +1 2 kills - +2 3+ kills - +3 Boosts do not stack (eg. a tribute will receive +2 for their second kill, not +3). The damage boost takes effect post-kill, and will be applied to the tribute's first attack the following Games day, with the stipulation that the tribute deals damage with their attack (IE: If you double miss or your opponent uses Camouflage, the boost is not applied). Damage boosts cap at +3, meaning for their 4th, 5th, 6th (etc.) kills the tribute will still receive only the +3 damage boost. -- We wanted to implement a station that rewards tributes for their kills, with the trade-off being that the viability of the station itself will most likely only come into effect late-Games. Bloodlust adds a bit more variance in 1v1 oriented stations for writers who are hoping to make a deep run into the Games.
Vengeance	A tribute's resilience awakens in response to taking damage, granting them a boost to their attacks within a fight. When a tribute reaches or crosses each of the following damage thresholds, their next attack within the fight will receive an increasingly large boost: 10 damage taken: +0.5 20 damage taken: +1 30 damage taken: +2 If a tribute starts the day with 10, 20, or 30 damage they will receive the corresponding boost to their first attack, and will continue to receive them as they accumulate damage. This is with the stipulation that the tribute deals damage with their first attack (IE: If you double miss or your opponent uses Camouflage, the boost is not applied) -- We wanted to implement the opportunity for writers who are anticipating taking high amounts of damage within their fights to receive a slight advantage as a result of it. The stacking of damage boosts potentially sways targeting as well, as an alliance could run the risk of giving their opponent a +1.5 damage boost within a single round, provided they deal 20 damage to their opponent. From a 1v1 perspective, this station still maintains viability in that it comes close to a hail-mary as a fight continues. For nail-biter fights that are relatively close in high-damage, the damage boost could become the difference between winning and losing.
Justice	"Did you kill Enigma Lane?" Tributes who select this station may choose one fellow tribute prior to the Bloodbath and one after the Bloodbath that they are "bonded" with, and will receive the following damage adjustments as a result: Bonded Tribute: Tributes with the Justice station will receive a blanket -1 to all attacks they make on tributes that they are bonded with. If the bonded tribute dies in the same fight as a Justice user: The tribute will receive a +3 damage boost to their next attack, with the stipulation that their attack is on the bonded tribute's killer. If a Justice user sees the bonded tribute in the Anthem: The tribute will receive a +2 to their first attack the next Games day, no matter who they attack. Boosts tied to this station are mutually exclusive: if a Justice user's bonded tribute dies in their fight and the +3 damage boost is utilized, they will not receive the +2 damage boost the next day. -- Functionally, it's easy to think of this station as a parallel of Rivalry, only focused on connections rather than spite. We're interested in how IC dynamics intertwine with potential damage boosts (or reductions), and think this station has viability within duos or trios specifically.
Pickup	Tributes with this station will have a 50% chance daily of finding a random item as they explore the arena. Potential items will be comprised of the following: - Leftover wealth items - Dropped items from other tributes - Items from RE's that were not activated - Items from broken traps Picked up / stolen items will be processed and posted by GM's at the end of every Games day. -- Part of this station's existence is tied into the added anonymity of the thievery station, and the other half is to allow writers to have a better chance of receiving some critical items as the Games continue. And yes it is inspired by Pokemon.

Automatically Granted Stations

Accuracy	A tribute may re-roll one missed or blocked attack per day.
First Aid	A tribute may heal themselves or other tributes. Further details in the Games Rules, § VII. Combat, part H. Healing
Stealth	A tribute may roll an attack in their introduction post in a fight.
Plants	Tribute will be able to identify plant life within the arena, allowing them to collect bundles of specific plants. Once per day, a tribute may collect one bundle of either edible, medicinal, or poisonous plants. -- This station has become a necessity for survival in the Games. Because of this, we're automatically granting it to everyone while slightly minimizing the usefulness to hopefully balance it out.
Self-Defense	Attack deflection and defense. Once per fight, a tribute may roll a set of dice [3-8] at the top of their post (This is in addition to their attack roll). The result can then be deducted from a previous attack that was made against them. The amount of damage mitigated may not exceed the amount of damage that was dealt (IE: you can't deflect 8 damage from a shallow cut). -- The standard pattern of everyone taking a +1 station as well as S/D had the consequence of making all of those stations functionally useless. With S/D being an active choice as opposed to passive, we're hoping that it allows +1 stations to remain viable while still keeping the usefulness of damage removal, which was the original station premise.

Elective Stations

Blades	Knives, swords, glaives, etc (+1 to damage score for all hits greater than or equal to 6pts for bladed combat, that is, knives and swords)
Target Practice	Ranged weapons (+1 to damage score for all hits greater than or equal to 6pts for any shot or thrown weapons).
Strength	Axe, flail, club/blunt (+1 to damage score for all hits greater than or equal to 6pts for axe, flail, spear, and blunt weapons)
Hand-to-hand	Proficiency in unarmed combat (+1 to damage score for any attack that hits while using unarmed). As well: Once per fight: A tribute may grapple/tackle an opponent. This will take the place of a tribute's "attack" for that turn. Grappled opponents will be disabled from attacking for one round. 2x per games: A tribute may grapple and attack in the same post, effectively "combo'ing" a disabling mechanism and an attack in one. To utilize this, the tribute must have been fighting unarmed for all attacks prior to the combo, and must continue to fight unarmed until the fight concludes. -- Though hand-to-hand combat is not very common in the Games, we still wanted to potentially make this station a bit more viable and fun to use. Adding a blanket +1 to any landed attacks brings it up to ~flail in terms of damage output, and the additional grappling options provide flexibility and keep the door open for strategizing one's attacks, especially when considering the "combo" option. [Grapple mechanics inspired by previous disabling mechanic/items. Thank you to all who ideated and tested this out prior!]
Whip Proficiency	Chains and whips excite you (+1 to damage score for any attack that hits while using whip). As well: Once per fight: A tribute may lasso an opponent. This will take the place of a tribute's "attack" for that turn. Lassoed opponents will be disabled from attacking for one round. 2x per games: A tribute may lasso and attack in the same post, effectively "combo'ing" a disabling mechanism and an attack in one. To utilize this, the tribute must have been fighting using a whip for all attacks prior to the combo, and must continue to fight using whip rolls until the fight concludes. -- Whip weapons have a reputation of being a lot more fun to write than they are to actually use as a functional attack. We're hoping the changes to this station allow whips as a whole to feel more useful, as the blanket +1 brings it up to ~knife in damage output. Similarly to the Hand-to-hand, we're interested and excited to see how y'all use the additional disabling mechanic in lassoing within fights ^^ [Lasso mechanics inspired by previous disabling mechanic/items. Thank you to all who ideated and tested this out prior!]
Improvisational Weapons/Armor	Teaches tribute to make weapons and armor out of natural materials, pending GM approval. -- This is how this station has functioned for some time, so really just a wording update for clarity.
Fire Making	Allows tributes to make fire with natural resources. Fire can be used to boil water to make it drinkable when it is questionable if it is poisoned.
Endurance	Allows tributes to move two areas rather than one, but only once every three days. Alternatively, a tribute may opt to heal an additional -2 damage instead of the additional location movement option. -- Adding slightly more usefulness to the station itself, as tributes may not always need the additional movement, especially late Games.
Camouflage	Once every two days, a tribute may opt to utilize this station and "camouflage" themselves prior to a fight. The tribute must notify GM's prior to the next day's anthem that they are utilizing this station. This will bump them to last in the fight's turn order, but will also guarantee that the first attack made against the tribute will be considered a miss, collectively dealing 0 damage. The camouflage status effect immediately ends once the user attacks, and can only last one round maximum. -- Hunting died long ago, and the Camouflage station died with it. We've updated it to allow for guaranteed viability in modern Games fight dynamics, while still keeping it balanced in terms of trade-offs. We're hoping usefulness is maintained for this station in both group fights as well as 1v1's, provided the user strategizes a bit on when best to use the station itself. The wording of the first attack being considered a "miss" is intentional, as it allows Camouflage users to effectively negate the damage stack effects of some other 1v1 oriented stations, such as Rivalry, Justice, Vengeance and Poison.
Light Step	You are 2x less likely to trigger tribute-made traps.
Rationing	Adds one extra day to food and water quota. Additionally, once per day the tribute will be able to double collect a single resource from the arena. The double collected item must be noted in maintenance. -- Added slightly more usefulness, as there's been a pattern of readily available food/water resources in more recent Games.
Thievery	A tribute may attempt to steal items from a target in a non-attack, non-flee post. The target must be in the same location as the tribute. To attempt to steal something, thievery users will contact GM's privately and provide the following: 1) Which tribute they are attempting to steal from 2) What item from that tribute's inventory they are attempting to steal GM's will then roll for success level on a thread within the RE board, with the following outcomes: 1-3: Failure 4-6: Clumsy success 7-9: Decent success 10: Perfect success Success levels have the following impact: Failure: No item stolen, and the tribute cannot steal from that tribute target again Clumsy Success: Roll for item number ±2 (1-in-5 chance of getting the target item), and receive whichever item it lands on. Decent Success: Roll for item number ±1 (1-in-3 chance of getting the target item), and receive whichever item it lands on. Perfect Success: Tribute receives the item they specifically targeted. If the item number is invalid (e.g. targeting item 1, rolling a 0) the tribute will receive nothing. Stolen / picked up items will be processed and posted at the end of every Games day. -- Thievery was heavily underpowered in its current state, and an additional pain point was that it's a bit antagonistic in that one is publicly negatively impacting another tribute, which could have social implications. We updated the rolls and rules surrounding the station to reflect its potential use, and we're hoping that the anonymity of the rolls themselves and the collective item postings will help tributes feel a bit less anxious about utilizing this station. At the same time, trying to steal a powerful item from someone is going to be inherently noticeable, which means the tradeoff to this station's viability is that tribute's will have to consider just how noticeable the item they may steal is, and if it's worth that risk.
Trapping	Allows tribute to attempt to catch small game and will increase your odds of making successful tribute-triggered traps. -- No changes here, but we're planning to be a bit stricter this Games in regards to allowing tributes without the station to make traps. As always, traps and such will be judged case-by-case and will be discussed between GM's and tribute.
Charisma	Tribute will automatically receive +1 interaction point prior to the Games for use in the post-based sponsorship. Additionally, tributes will be able to roll for random items starting immediately after the Bloodbath and continuing daily. The post-BB list will be filled with only practical items. For each day onwards, lists will be a mix of practical and impractical items. Alternatively, tributes may opt to not participate in the daily roll and instead receive +1 interaction point for use in the post-based sponsorship. -- With the changes to sponsorship continuing this Games, we've updated the Charisma station accordingly. Additionally, we've added some immediate viability with the post-BB item lists being a guaranteed practical item. After day one, the potential for a practical item is there but not guaranteed, which we think is a fairly balanced approach (as well as the opportunity for interaction points instead).
Rivalry	Before the Bloodbath, tributes who choose this station can privately select 1 nemesis. When they attack this tribute, they receive a +1 damage bonus to all attacks that do 6+ damage. (This is similar to the Blades station.) Additionally, after the Bloodbath, the tribute may pick two tributes they've fought before to add as a nemesis. This comes into effect after any mandated fights on the day the tribute selects their new nemesis. This choice must designate their final target while there are 9 or more tributes still alive (e.g. before the Top 8 1v1s). -- Shifting the nemesis selection more towards post-BB selection allows for mandate matchups to have more impact over which tributes someone can select, which hopefully keeps this station a bit more aligned from an IC reasoning perspective. We've kept the +1 weapons stations the same for now, but depending on future changes Rivalry will need to be adjusted accordingly, as it has the potential to be pretty powerful still.
Mutt Tamer	This will grant you +1 on any attack over 6 damage, no matter what weapon you're using, when you hit a mutt.
Smuggling	Grants the tribute +3 inventory slots.

Last Edit: Sept 12, 2023 20:47:01 GMT -5 by pogue

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