New Chaplain abilities: Sigils and Incantations

[Frank_Stein]

They can be drawn on the floor as you would with crayon. Maybe require using a certain amount of blood to create it them, or perhaps you have to say some incantations while standing over them to activate them. Just something to give it a bit of a challenge.

Maybe which effects are connected to which symbol is randomized each round. Figuring out which symbols do what would be a bit of trial and error and guesswork. An ancient and horrible tome in the Chapel could give hints or provide you with the right incantations

I suggested the previous in a thread about combating the Wraith, but the more I think about it, I think this could be something to give the Chaplain more of a presence on the station: The ability to create little pockets of magic around the station. An example could be warp points similar to mechanic teleporters, or creating a tile that heals you when you stand on it.

Instead of limiting the ability to create sigils to the Chaplain, instead have it so they can plainly read from the tome that tells you how to create and activate the sigils. Other people can still create them, but will have to guess at what they're doing rather than knowing.

Sigils could easily be removed by standard cleaning, getting rid of their effects.

[atomic1fire]

They can be drawn on the floor as you would with crayon. Maybe require using a certain amount of blood to create it them, or perhaps you have to say some incantations while standing over them to activate them. Just something to give it a bit of a challenge.

Maybe which effects are connected to which symbol is randomized each round. Figuring out which symbols do what would be a bit of trial and error and guesswork. An ancient and horrible tome in the Chapel could give hints or provide you with the right incantations

I suggested the previous in a thread about combating the Wraith, but the more I think about it, I think this could be something to give the Chaplain more of a presence on the station: The ability to create little pockets of magic around the station. An example could be warp points similar to mechanic teleporters, or creating a tile that heals you when you stand on it.

Instead of limiting the ability to create sigils to the Chaplain, instead have it so they can plainly read from the tome that tells you how to create and activate the sigils. Other people can still create them, but will have to guess at what they're doing rather than knowing.

Sigils could easily be removed by standard cleaning, getting rid of their effects.

It might be neat if Chaplain just had a specific mutation that makes them a natural, whereas everyone else needs a tool to do it. That allows most people to use sigils and runes, but gives people a reason to play as chaplain regardless of access.

Runes and Sigils should just consists of buffs and debuffs. E.g stun symbols, healing symbols, etc.

[Nnystyxx]

I like the idea of this a lot. Gives you some magic-y stuff that isn't super griefy and is removable, but has a definite use. And, done right, you could flavor it however you want for varying different Chaplain religions.

should be a gib tile that has really obvious effects/a confirmation prompt, so you can sacrifice yourself

Here's some ideas:
Good
- Healing: passive regeneration, sort of like a sleeper. May not be enough to prevent active death but helps. Might cure addictions with faith healing.
- Antistun: shortens the durations of stuns.

Neutral
- Flush: purges chemicals faster from those standing on the rune. Good if you have poison in you, bad if you have medicine in you.
- Conversion: Gives those who stand on the rune Chaplain-set miscreant objectives. Basically a way to make being in a cult official, but doesn't give you any murder privileges.
- Chemical: Puts the first chemical to touch it into the bloodstream of those touching an engaged rune. This could be great or very very very bad.

Bad
- Hurting: standing on this will make you die slowly.
- Stun: crossing this when it's active will blast you with a stun. It may need to recharge.

[Frank_Stein]

Couple of sigil ideas:

• Sigil of Warding: Acts as a movement blocking barrier. Projectiles and such can still pass over it
  
• Sigil of Binding: Traps someone on the tile once they step into it
  
• Sigil of Dawn: Acts as a light source
  
• Sigil of Shadow: Darkens the area. Makes the person standing on it invisible
  
• Sigil of Sight: While standing on this sigil, you can observe other sigils of this type the way you would a camera
  
• Sigil of Summoning: Creates a familiar in the form of a friendly critter
  
• Sigil of Banishment: Randomly teleports someone that stands on it 30 or so tiles away
  
• Sigil of Seance: Allows you to speak to ghosts. Like a Ouija board, multiple ghosts can use it at once with restrictions
  
• Sigil of the Asteral Plane: Turns you into a visible, ghost like figure, leaving your body on the sigil. The ghost form can move about ignoring doors and speaking to people, but can't interact with the physical realm. Attacking the Asteral projection dissapates it, stunning the user.
  
  
  

[Nnystyxx]

Couple of sigil ideas:

• Sigil of Warding: Acts as a movement blocking barrier. Projectiles and such can still pass over it
  
• Sigil of Binding: Traps someone on the tile once they step into it
  
• Sigil of Dawn: Acts as a light source
  
• Sigil of Shadow: Darkens the area. Makes the person standing on it invisible
  
• Sigil of Sight: While standing on this sigil, you can observe other sigils of this type the way you would a camera
  
• Sigil of Summoning: Creates a familiar in the form of a friendly critter
  
• Sigil of Banishment: Randomly teleports someone that stands on it 30 or so tiles away
  
• Sigil of Seance: Allows you to speak to ghosts. Like a Ouija board, multiple ghosts can use it at once with restrictions
  
• Sigil of the Asteral Plane: Turns you into a visible, ghost like figure, leaving your body on the sigil. The ghost form can move about ignoring doors and speaking to people, but can't interact with the physical realm. Attacking the Asteral projection dissapates it, stunning the user.
  
  
  

Goddamn this is really cool. Let me attempt to draw up some examples of these.


Re: lore: there is absolutely magic. We have ghosts, we have wraiths, we have a magic bibble, we have wizards, I don't think it'd be unfair to give Chaplains this sort of tool (or at least, ease in using it). But having it relatively easily accessible would bring up some. . intriguing considerations in a fight.

Re: actual game mechanics: sigils would need some kind of limiting factor, like resources, time, energy, or otherwise, if some of these ideas were implemented. Being able to talk to ghosts or ward areas from foot traffic could be fun but griff. It would, however, be goddamn hilarious if you could just remove them with water/space cleaner.

EDIT2: SPECIFIC INPUT:
Sigil of Warding:
Use cases: Keeping people outside your nerd projects. Trapping someone in a magical mimecube.
Potential issues: Trapping someone in a magical mimecube.
Sigil of Binding:
Use cases: Chase-stopping. Trapping hostile mobs.
Potential issues: Magic jail. How to break out? Resist?
Sigil of Dawn:
Use cases: Replacing the light fixtures with maaaaaaaagic!
Potential issues: I genuinely can't think of any. Aside from maybe making places way too bright if you stack them.
Sigil of Shadow:
Use cases: Making the chapel very dark and spooky.
Potential issues: This seems like a way to cripple the lights on the station. Depends on radius. Probably easy to hide under stuff.
Sigil of Sight:
Use cases: Magical spy stickers. Chaplain TV channel.
Potential issues: Would make spy stickers kind of pointless to tater Chaplains. But then, they themselves might be kind of pointless.
Sigil of Summoning:
Use cases: Cute friends. Especially good if they're tied to the activator.
Potential issues: Critter spam? It's not like bees are really any better.
Sigil of Banishment:
Use cases: Sending people away from your holy place.
Potential issues: Almost certainly would end up throwing innocent crewmembers DIRECTLY into space. Maybe needs a time to warm up?
Sigil of Seance:
Use cases: Learning from ghosts. Ghost standup routines.
Potential issues: Absolutely runs the risk of a salty ghost destroying a traitor's round.
Sigil of the Asteral Plane:
Use cases: Doing fuckin' cool shit.
Potential issues: Turns people into AI eyes with no obligation not to destroy the traitor they find.

[Frank_Stein]

I figure they'd be just as easy to remove as normal crayon writing, but maybe just using an empty hand on them could smudge em enough to break em.

Drawing them on the ground should be simple enough. I figure activating them would be what takes time. If incantations are the way to go, I imagine you would draw the symbol, then say a series of words in sequence near the symbol to activate it.

Sorta like how the wizard casts spells, but you'd manually type each word. Require multiple words, spoken individually, and you've got a nice time cap on using them

[Nnystyxx]

I figure they'd be just as easy to remove as normal crayon writing, but maybe just using an empty hand on them could smudge em enough to break em.

Drawing them on the ground should be simple enough. I figure activating them would be what takes time. If incantations are the way to go, I imagine you would draw the symbol, then say a series of words in sequence near the symbol to activate it.

Sorta like how the wizard casts spells, but you'd manually type each word. Require multiple words, spoken individually, and you've got a nice time cap on using them

+1 to the incantations thing. It, interestingly, forces you to have to speak in order to use this stuff, encouraging the sense of theatrics that goes into a good Chaplain gimmick (and meaning you can't silently murderbone with it!!).

The idea of the Chaplain's mystical powers coming through crayon drawings on the floor and slurred incantations delights me to no end. That, and it being somehow 'real magic' that nobody can explain, unlike the wizards' technology-magic stuff.

Another potential overcomplication: maybe certain sigils require (or optionally can include) a sacrifice to activate, and that sacrifice may or may not affect the result, like sacrificing honey to make bees.

Potential incantations [WIP]:
Summoning: GIFF - MI - BEEZ

[Frank_Stein]

An idea for another sigil that would really benefit from incantations as a means of activation:

Sigil of the Alchemist: Place an item or material in the sigil, say your incantation, and transform what material the item is made from into another.

Part of the incantation phrase would be the name of the material, so you'd have something like

"IN HOC AURUM TRANSFORMO" compared to "IN HOC FERRO TRANSFORMO"

[cyberTripping]

i really, really like the idea of speaking being the source of power, as it reminds me of a magic system from a story i just recently read. In the story, magic was essentially an obscured "coding language" in a way, where advanced spells could take upwards of an hour of recital.

Chaplain sigils being activated like this means muting poisons, gags, and other things that interrupt their speech would be a check on their power in a confrontation. The rpg classic of "silencing" a mage to prevent spellcasting would dynamically emerge from the systems in place.

[Frank_Stein]

i really, really like the idea of speaking being the source of power, as it reminds me of a magic system from a story i just recently read. In the story, magic was essentially an obscured "coding language" in a way, where advanced spells could take upwards of an hour of recital.

Chaplain sigils being activated like this means muting poisons, gags, and other things that interrupt their speech would be a check on their power in a confrontation. The rpg classic of "silencing" a mage to prevent spellcasting would dynamically emerge from the systems in place.

I figured as much. We'd probably have to take into account accents, but booze and drugs would be out of the question. 

Which means having pious Chaplains avoiding vices so they don't mess up their own casting

[Keelin]

I wish i wasn't doing a million things already.
Just gonna put it on the list anyway.

[Frank_Stein]

I wish i wasn't doing a million things already.
Just gonna put it on the list anyway.

That's great! I'll toss a few more Sigil ideas your way. I've always thought that Chaplain should be a bit of a good luck charm for other people, so here's a few things specifically geared towards helping specific departments

• Sigil of the Apothecarist - Cures chemical dependence, returns you to sobriety (Chem+Bartender)
  
• Sigil of the Epicurean - Makes food taste delicious, produces strong and plentiful bounties on plants grown on top of it (Chef+Botany)
  
• Sigil of the Hearth Tender - Extinguishes flames, provides stable temp and atmosphere for those that stand on it (Engineering+Mining)
  
• Sigil of the Watchman - Designate a target, and when they come within range of the sigil it sends out an alert to you (Security+Detective)
  
• Sigil of the Merchant - Increases haggle odds with traders (QM)
  
• Sigil of Physician - When standing on the sigil, medical conditions like shock or heart failure are slowed. Heals radiation damage over time (Medical+Genetics)
  
• Sigil of the Automaton - Sigil acts as a charger for borgs (AI+Robotics)
  
• Sigil of the Scholar - Indicates the activation method for artifacts, adds a bookmark to the telescience computer at sigil's location (Science)
  

[Recusor]

Geeze these are great!

[Nnystyxx]

stuff about incantations

Getting an accent would make this instantaneously horrible to use, wowee!!
Nevertheless, I love the idea of the Chaplain having to abstain from the alky to cast magic properly, that's funny. And there are a few ways to keep people from talking. . .

EDIT: Here, have 5 more sprites. You can probably guess which ones are which this time!!


EDIT2:
So, ideas for limiting factors:
- Incantations. Might be long, might be hard to memorize. Would need book (or ctrl-c, ctrl-v in a notepad). Interfered with by DRUGS/muteness.
- Special multicolored magical chalk required?
- Only selecting certain sigils per round? I don't want anyone to get saddled with a bunch that are useless though.

I can't stress enough how happy I am that this system basically necessitates Chaplains to speak, so if you do have a tater Chap, they CANNOT be silent shitheels.

[Frank_Stein]

I like the idea about chalk color selection. It could work where not only do you need the words, but the right color.

Chaplain could start with a box with what they need and the book with all the words, but if someone else wanted to cast they'd need to scavange for the right shade of crayon or something

I figure the code for checking the words would just also include the accented versions, but not anything else like stammering or slurring