Effort - From Currency To Catalyst

Thanks Bad Doctor, for being alive.
Thanks for being, through it all.
That is more than plenty.

"You and your fae-brain! You’ve got me thinking about effort, and about potentially situating it in the fiction. Cottonmouth, you know? Turning currency into principle: no growth without change. So character growth only in return for advancing or accepting change that comes from outside, but having that decision be an immediate one rather than contributing to an effort pool. All impacts as catalysts!""

A door that held a silken knife.
Change that I had to walk through
That comment knocked the wind into me.

Because I had forgotten.
Forgotten that I play with a carrier bag, not an engine.
That I belive in bruises that shaped us, kisses that changed us, oaths that mattered not because they were earned, but because they were spoken.

I became seduced—like we all do—by the finger pointing at the moon.
By the concrete lattice of a system
The way it seemed weighty through being mathematical, or logical, or precise.
A trick we think is more worth than the substance of our words, or kisses from our lips.
The finger was too fat. Too heavy with structure.
I could no longer see what it pointed to.
And while the marks of effort were delicious, the aftertaste was that of gravel, not moon-tears

I had made effort a currency, change a cost, impact a resource to be spent.
But why gradual change, when you could have meaningful change with a Cause.

Why many numbers, when you can make a moment?
Why count scars as marks when you could feel them?
I love to scar my sheet, but the erasermark kiss and the written word is so much more moonladen than the dot.

I want the felt moon, not to stare at my computing hand holding an abacus.

So I rewrote it.
I need to keep a hold of my fae-brain, so it throbs along with my fae-heart.

Effort is now a threshold, a pressure the world puts on you.
You choose how to respond—Root, Reflect, Resist, Receive, or Twist.
And when you-or-the-world wins? That’s a Victory or a Misery—written into you, for a time.
Until you carry it, or give it away, or burn it down.

Some changes the world offers. Thats when you exert effort.
Some, it forces. Thats when you gain a victory or misery.

Some truths become Legends.
Some, dear Bonds.
All chains that bind for at time
Of gold.
Of iron.
Of flesh.

All impacts are catalysts.

Let the world touch you. Let it echo.

Disclosure
This will be made into a play-aid linked here.
I will have to rework my victories & miseries play-aid.
I will not rework my Victories & Miseries post, but I will mention on it that it has changed since then.
I think it is important to be able to retrace one's steps, and for others to do so. Not to look back in pain, but to see the scars in flesh.

Exerting Effort — When the World Asks Something of You

You may exert effort—and choose from the Fivefold Path—when the moment touches something true in you.

The act is not measured by value or points. It is offered, or taken, or burned through you.

You may do so when it is meaningful to what moves you, or in hardship:

What Moves you:

Desire

You invoke a desire—acting to get what you want.
You refute a desire—refusing what you ache for.

This always births a Victory or Misery.

Secret

You reveal a dark secret—especially one that changes how others see you.

This always births a Victory or Misery.

Goal

You commit to an action tied to a written goal.
You reach a goal—even partially.

Instinct

You follow an instinct, which allows you to act or interpose, in addition to the effects of effort.

Bond, Legend, or Ghost.

You invoke a Bond or Legend to impact the world or another character.
You push against a Bond, disrupting closeness or revealing tension.

Effort here may reshape relationships, or awaken something new.

Feel Emotion

You as a player or a character feels a great emotion. Others may invoke this based on your play, for you - you may deny it freely.
You may exert effort towards the object of your emotion.

In Hardship and by your traits:

Make It Worse

You deliberately intensify the moment: heighten danger, worsen outcomes, invite consequence through a trait or instinct, because you see that fits what your character is.
You act, but something else must give. You suffer impact or escalation relevant to the trait, method

You follow an instinct, even when it brings danger or discomfort.
You resist an instinct, creating friction in yourself or others.

Risk

You push beyond your capabilities, inviting risk, opening yourself to the outside world as you rail against it.

If you test, choose if the risk manifests on success+victory or failure+misery. Then test.
If you compromise, —but the danger deepens.

You take risk and push yourself towards the object of your intent, with consequences based on traits used or your method

Mizushyne

The Fivefold Path — Responding to Change

When you test, slip, compromise, or accept a consequence, you may exert effort like above and walk one of these paths. Each path creates immediate fictional change and may alter your traits, essence, or self.

You are always permeable.

If effort affects a shared trait, or bond, ask. Be curious and gentle. Does the change correspond to magical command. Else, loving How's and Why's are enough. Allow yourself to play and be surprised by the meaning that emerges.

What happens to the trait is just a suggestion. A most probable effect. What makes sense in your playing makes sense in your playing.

RECEIVE — "I want more. Let it cost more."

Reach further. Name a second, orthogonal intent and the action you take to achieve it. Also name the danger it will invite.

If you test, no matter succees or failure, escalation, danger or impact manifests. On a success, your orthogonal intent is also achieved. Else, it is not.
If you compromise, One intent will succeed, but the danger will too. GM's choice.

Trait effect: The trait may fuse, fracture, or transform.
Example: “I sneak through and grab the glinting blade at the seabed. Even if I succeed, I’ll be drenched—and if I fail, I’m spotted and soaked.”

RESIST — "I will not yield."

Push back. State what you're protecting or denying.

Trait effect:

If resisting with the trait → it is deepened or affirmed.
If resisting against it → it may strain, scar, or be lost (your choice).
Example: “I will not betray them—Loyal Heart holds.”

TWIST — "You think this is what it means? Watch me bend it."

Reframe the moment. Refuse the presented meaning. Create a new one.

Trait effect: The trait may be split, inverted, rewritten, or colored with contradiction.
Example: “Coward” becomes “Knows When to Flee” or gains “Hides So Others Live.”

REFLECT — "If this touches me, it touches you."

Let the change bounce outward. Another character or the world is changed because you were.

Trait effect: Traits may be shared, mirrored, or passed between characters.
Example: “If I must feel shame, so must she.” → “Burned by Her Distance.”

ROOT — "Let something grow from this."

Declare a new truth. A trait emerges. Two may fuse. Something buried comes to light.

Trait effect: A new trait blooms or replaces old ones.
Example: “Fast” + “Desperate fiddling” becomes “Too Late Again.”

Archannair

Victories & Miseries — Vector Traits of Persistent Change

These are not earned. They are inflicted or offered by the world. They are:

Named
Situated in fiction
Carriers of effort

They are kisses that linger. Breaks that never healed right.

When You Gain One:

On a test

Two 6s: Victory — you succeed gloriously, and are marked by what you dared.
Two 1s: Misery — you fail utterly, and are marked by what it cost.

You name it. It goes on your sheet.
Examples:

Victory: “Outran the Storm Itself”
Misery: “Failed Her When It Mattered”

Using a Victory or Misery

Each one may be used. Each time, it grants the right to exert effort when fictionally relevant. At any point on use, the player may use to Take It In, Let it Go, or Pass It On.

Each use deepens its weight. It grows closer to fusing with your self.

Take it in, Let it go, Pass it On

When it is right, you must choose:

If publicly witnessed → it becomes a Legend. To me, publicly is not with other player characters or characters dear to the players or characters personally.
If held quietly → it becomes a Bond.

Take it in

It becomes a new trait, expertise,, adds to an existing one, or removes one. The choice is yours.
It is now part of your core identity - until that is changed through effort.

Let It Go

You release it. You mark the moment as a lingering Ghost on your sheet.
Write a line: “The storm is behind me now.”
This may be invoked for effort, at which point it is erased unless changed beforehand.

Pass It On

If you aid another with the victory or misery, and they accept it, you may gift it in addition to taking it in or letting it go.

The recipient may rename it:
“They Who Were Spared”, “Took the Blow I Couldn’t.”

Lavestalu

Threads, Bonds & Legends — What the World Remembers

When a Victory or Misery is resolved, it may linger. These echoes are called threads. They come closked as Legends or Bonds.

Recalled — You invoke it in situations of social tension or memory.
Remembered — Others already know. NPCs, places, factions may treat you accordingly.
Twisted — Others may distort it, echo it wrongly, or claim it for themselves.

Legends — To Be Known

Public. Witnessed. Spoken.
May be used by anyone who knows.
Can be twisted, exalted, or exploited.
Becomes part of your social body. Theirs to thrust on to you, but yours to define.

“You’re the one who Outran the Storm, aren’t you?”
“No. I just left my friends behind.”

Bonds — To Be laid skinless.

Private. Shared between two or more characters. Not uttered outside privacy.
Written on all involved sheets.
Can be pulled upon in smut, intimacy, or silence.
Can be surrendered in moments of transformation. The other may take it then, or rewrite the bond on your sheet, or both. Their choice.

“I remember how you held her hand when she stopped breathing. You never spoke of it, but I knew.”

Changing Threads — Legend ↔ Bond

Speak a Bond aloud → It becomes a Legend.
Bury a Legend quietly → It may become a Bond again, if the world allows forgetting.

A secret once confessed in ritual may become a rumor, then a prophecy.
Or be buried again, beneath shared silence.

In Play — Using Threads

Can be invoked during the Fivefold Path (especially Reflect and Root).
Allow exerting effort in scenes where they matter.
Shape social tension, closeness, and emotional power.

Only Legends may be challenged.
Only Bonds can reshape closeness without being named.

The Midwife surrenders her Bond with the Queen of Willows she had seen also caring for others like her:
“I remember how you held her hand when she stopped breathing. You never spoke of it, but I knew.” Is the bond. Can you hold mine now, i am deathly scared of what will happen to me. I don't have an idea of the Queens intention. I surrender my bond to them.

The Queen of Willows player thinks for a moment. Asks. "You see thralldom as death?"

The Midwife's player says. "I don't know. But i don't feel safe, not even with you."

The Queen's player responds "I take her hand—though no words are said. I hold it through the entire rite of remaking" and rewrites the bond. "We can hold one-anothers hands, and pass any threshhold." But stops. "Do you feel safe - I want to write an ending to the bond that sort of echoes how the midwife feels?"

And then they talk, the players, of how their characters feel, and the sheet is hopefully kissed with meaning born out of their immersion.

Mizushyne

Imagine me this!

Search This Blog