Before we start talking about Rivals, I want to give huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported this project so far! Whether you've pledged, told your friends, shouted at a bus, told the people at your local store about it, something else, or all of it- thank you!
We're getting so, so close to funding. As of writing this update, we're 72% of the way there! We have just under $2,000 left to raise- which isn't nothing, but it's also very close!
To get this project across the finish line, to enable us to actually make this game a reality, we need your help pushing just a bit further. Please, keep up the great work and help us fund!
Now, let's talk about Rivals!
The last poll actually tied(nice try at getting me to talk about two things at once!), so I took the top results (Rivals and Magnitudes) and ran a follow-up poll in the Dinoberry Discord, with Rivals winning! Here's the proof:
So, today I get to talk to you about my favorite part of any mech story: two pilots fated to battle over and over, locked in a push-and-pull stalemate that won't end until one of them is dead or they kiss (sometimes both).
We knew from the jump that we wanted this intense, antagonistic connection to another character to be in Dragon Reactor, and we also knew it had to be meaningful when a rival shows up. They needed to not just be difficult to fight, but carry an emotional weight for the Pilots and, by extension, get the players excited (and a little scared) when the Poet stars describing their entrance.
Here's the current introductory text for Rivals:
Through the oil and smoke, a shimmer of butterfly blue catches your eye and the screaming engine sounds their call. Your rival is here.
You are not the only pilots with infinite destruction at their fingertips. Your rivals, each with their own loyalties and goals, have tamed Dragons.
During character creation, each player has the option to establish a Rival that their Pilot has already encountered, formed before the war began or in the fires of a previous battle. If a player wishes to have a rivalry form during play, with an NPC met during a conflict, they can skip this part of setup and refer to it when they feel a rivalry beginning to bud.
Rivals tell us just as much about your character as Anchors do, especially when you make them at character creation-- though that's not required. In fact, the first thing you write down about a rival is a single sentence that describes your relationship, how you met.
We've had a pretty wide range of answers here. One of my own playtest characters had a Rival that was her older brother, who was in turn another Pilot's starting Anchor. In our ongoing campaign, one of the Pilots that's been around since the first session as her mother filling the role. In that same campaign, another Pilot's rival was a member of an enemy faction that we ended up allying with after a few missions.
Each of these has incredible implications for the story, and they give everyone at the table something to play with. They're personal, not just to the Pilots who often mirror their Rivals, but to the players that are signaling to the poet: "hey, this is the kind of foil I want to go up against. This is a kind of story I want to tell here."
Plus, they're really damn cool.
The mirroring that Rivals do to Pilots is very intentional. After describing how you met, you pick their Archetype. Just like the Pilot Archetypes, these are made up of a few key phrases. Mainly, their Once Per Conflict move and a kind of fill-in-the-blank picklist to build their past and present.
Take the Zealot, for example:
Zealot A true believer in the cause. Once per Conflict: They call upon their faith as a shield. Each time they take a Condition, the enemy Conflict clock is progressed by 1.
They’ve been a believer since (childhood, a tragedy, meeting their hero), and never looked back. They have sacrificed (family, morality, everything) in service of their cause. When their (immediate superior, only friend, great leader) gives an order, they obey without question.
There's quite a bit to parse here, but I'm actually going to start at the bottom. Those three phrases allow the Pilots to mold the first shapes of their Rival, within some constraints. These Archetypes are built with purpose, designed to key in specific kinds of characters and stories.
To that end, the player picks one of those options in the parentheses on each phrase. As an example, that first phrase could become "They've been a believer since childhood, and never looked back".
Of course, once you have the game at your table you can make up anything you want, but we wanted to make sure we point you in a direction.
Ok, now we can go up a bit and take a look at that scary Once Per Conflict move. We haven't talked much about Conflict here, but you can learn a lot about it in the demo. To boil it down, Conflict is structured as competing clocks and the first side to fill theirs wins. Conditions are essentially HP for Pilots and Rivals, and Rivals can initially take up to 4 Conditions before being "defeated" (not killed!). Every time a Rival comes back, they can take 1 additional Condition.
The Zealot's Once per Conflict move is incredibly powerful, and very terrifying. Once it's triggered, for the remainder of the Conflict they'll move their side closer to victory any time your smack 'em. You don't have to defeat them, but they're going to cause a lot of trouble for you if you don't.
We took that approach with every Rival Archetype in the game. Once we figured out what we could do here, we knew they each needed to immediately change the game and bend the rules just like the Pilots can. Our guiding phrase for the Rivals (and for much of the game) grew into "how can we make this weirder and hit harder?".
I'll share two more before moving on, for the Noble and the Warlock:
Noble Once per Conflict: Reach out to a Pilot, establishing themselves as an Anchor.
Warlock Once per Conflict: They call upon their apostatic powers, stealing and immediately utilizing a Refrain.
Both of these directly mess with a Pilot's character sheet in ways nothing else does.
As you know, Anchors are personal, and the Noble can insert themself into your life in a very real way. Remember, when an Anchor's clock fills, you have a scene with them. They are built to be an ongoing presence working towards some ulterior motive, and they will use you to achieve it.
We haven't talked about Refrains yet (check out the demo!), but they are these personal, powerful phrases that Pilots pull on to shape the world in magical ways. The fact that the Warlock can simply reach into your character sheet and pluck something from your heart and hands should feel exactly as troubling as that sounds.
They're really, really hard to kill.
Any good rival is gonna stick around for a while, and in a game like Dragon Reactor where you're piloting a hyperpowerful superweapon capable of destroying a galaxy, we need to temper that a bit. We do this in two ways:
When a Rival's conditions fill, they are removed from the Conflict. A Rival is only defeated for good if the Poet and Pilot agree to bring their story to a close. The next time they show up, they're harder to beat.
Since Rivals also pilot Dragons, even acting against them is harder. A regular roll while piloting a Dragon needs at least 2 hits to succeed, but a check against a Rival needs at least 3. That difference is massive, and you'll know more about why when we talk about Magnitudes.
By designing Rivals like this, we ensure they show up throughout your story and have a major impact every single time. They're really, really freakin' cool.
And that's a wrap on Rivals!
There's a lot to say about these characters, but I can't without spoiling a whole bunch of stuff in the book- which I don't want to do! Seriously, every time I drop on into a Conflict the vibe shifts immediately in the best way possible. It's dramatic, it's scary, and it raises the desperation factor even if the Pilots are winning by a landslide.
Once again, thanks for reading! Please share this with your friends & TTRPG spaces to let as many people as you can know about the work we're doing with Dragon Reactor, and help us get across the finish line for funding!
What system would you like to hear about next? Rivals won out in the tie, so now it's between Magnitude and Conflict- take your pick!
