Pigtown RPG Devlog #1: Corruption and Character Creation

Starting things off, I want to give a general overview of how a player can build their character in this engine. The thought that drove a lot of my choices here was, "How do I build an engine that can best mirror the slow build of corruption that gives Pigtown its tension?" Who your character is (and in many ways, how powerful they are) is directly related to how much of an effect pigtown's corruptive elements have had on your character, but those mechanisms can, and should, come from a variety of directions. As your character grows and develops, I wanted it to feel like you were responding to the setting and the encounters there--that the setting is driving and encouraging the development. In this first devlog, I want to outline the various ways corruption is built into the system, and then, in the ones that follow, I dive in a bit deeper and flesh out some of the mechanics.

Rather than using a more conventional "race" or "background" mechanic to start out character creation, I decided to rely on a different sort of question--How long has your character been under Pigtown's influence? This first question sets up your characters starting power level. There are four levels of initial corruption to choose from, from "Freshmeat" characters who are just beginning to explore the setting, to "Lost Ones," who no longer remember what the world looks like beyond Pigtown. As your character grows, they can eventually progress from one level to the next, as they become more immersed in the corruption. 

The next source of corruption are the various powers that players can take on. This mechanic falls somewhere between feats and magic, combining the two. Each power has a number of abilities, structured into a skill tree, along with an additional skill that governs the players fundamental mastery of the element in question. Powers encourage specialization--most characters won't take more that two or three trees, and it should feel like a commitment to fill out an entire tree--and as a player completes a tree, they should increasingly feel like their character is becoming something increasingly inhuman, reflecting the corruption of the setting.

Finally, there are memberships. One of the struggles I had, when designing this setting and some of these mechanics, was that I didn't quite know how to translate certain kinks into powers. Take, for instance, a player that wants to design a biker character. I didn't want to create a biker background, because that would imply a background for every single subculture, which seemed...onerous. I didn't want to make them powers either, because that creates a similar problem. More than that, however, I felt that certain aspects of a character can't exist outside of community. A Biker shouldn't be a singular person--it should be a group or a community, that can establish the sort of norms that define a class like biker. 

While all characters start out with a specific role--a way to answer the question, "How has your character survived in Pigtown so far?"--memberships are a way to build relationships and community for characters. Characters join an organization as an acolyte, then become a member, and finally can become an elite leader in the group. Organizations can provide passive boosts to various skills (after all, a member of a biker gang ought to be more skilled at riding a motorcycle) and access to specific abilities (like the ability to summon lower level members of the organization to fight with you). They also require sacrifices. Certain organizations might require uniforms, participation in various rituals, or acts of service dedicated to more elite members. These can all be jumping off points for larger stories as well, since many of these organizations are battling over the scarce resources Pigtown has to offer. The more powerful, and larger an organization becomes, the larger the bonuses a player gains from it as well--but players should be cautious. If they fall out of good standing, or act against the organization, many of the boons can rapidly become hindrances.

Hope this is a good first taste! Next week, I'll cover the basic levels of corruption, and talk a bit about roles as well.