Character Modifiers

[Oxlazr]

So challenge runs have been pretty hit and miss for a variety of factors.

I'm wondering, though, if it'd eventually be possible to opt-in to a specific set of rules (some of which are available while playing, others are only available at character creation).

Here's some examples:

Permanent Death
- Any time an unavoidable death occurs, your character is lost. Anyone else with the permanent death flag can loot your gravestone to take all your items.
- Character creation only; cannot be toggled off.

Devolve
- Any time an unavoidable death occurs, your character changes form:
Humanoid --> Wolf --> Giant Bat --> Spider --> Cow --> Deer --> Pig --> Rabbit --> Raven.

Once you hit raven, you're basically stuck & that's essentially the end of that character.
- Cannot be disabled.
- Characters are immune to all other shapeshift effects.

Cursed I
- When dying, receive a random curse (any).
- Can be toggled in Serbule.

Cursed II
- Boss curses extend to their dungeons; dying in a dungeon applies their curse.
- Dying in the wilderness causes unique effects.
- Can be toggled in Serbule.

Menagerie
- Character is immediately transformed into a random animal.
- Cannot be removed.
- Can only trade/group with other menagerie characters.

Self-Sustained Permanent Death
- All restrictions enabled, plus permanent death.


PG is already pretty niche, and I expect these sorts of settings would be even more niche, so it's probably not worthwhile but they're still fun to think about.

Some sort of special rotating ruleset could be interesting as well.

Anyway, anyone else have any other ideas for character modifiers? Or potential rewards?

[Madmatx]

Permanent Death
- Any time an unavoidable death occurs, your character is lost. Anyone else with the permanent death flag can loot your gravestone to take all your items.
- Character creation only; cannot be toggled off.

Nobody wants permadeath in a game that takes 100's of hours to max out your skills. Losing your items is one thing but there wouldn't be any motivation to do anything worthwhile with your character.

[Oxlazr]

Nobody wants permadeath in a game that takes 100's of hours to max out your skills. Losing your items is one thing but there wouldn't be any motivation to do anything worthwhile with your character.

It's not so bad if you opt to skip a lot of the side-skills with the expectation that your character will inevitably die.

We've had a small trial run in the past, and the tech's already there to support it.

I can definitely understand it's not for everyone, though.

For me, at least, "if" not "when" is a much more exciting variable when playing video games. I've leveled cheesemaking, for example, and it was a matter of time and nothing else - not a compelling experience.

I wonder if giving characters bonus experience to non-combat skills if they've permanent death enabled would make it more compelling, though. Food for thought I guess.

[Mechant]

Nobody wants permadeath in a game that takes 100's of hours to max out your skills. Losing your items is one thing but there wouldn't be any motivation to do anything worthwhile with your character.

I have 100+ hours but still not maxed yet lol