Quincunx
inactive
Your magic can cause changes in you and your reality based on your emotions. This is expressed by a tally of Hope and Despair, and things called "shifts". When something significantly good happens to your character - they help someone in a substantial way, they make a new friend, they make progress towards a goal - they gain 1 point of Hope. When something significantly bad happens - they learn a horrible secret, they have a major failure, they have a fear realized - they gain 1 point of Despair. The GM will tell you when something warrants taking a point of Hope or Despair.
When they have 3 points of Hope, a Hope Shift happens to them, and you cross it off and reset their Hope tally to zero. This continues until you've crossed off all three Hope Shifts. The next time they accumulate 3 Hope points, they have a Great Hope, and you cross it off and uncross all of the Hope Shifts, and continue the cycle until you can't cross off any more Great Hopes. Despair points follow the same process.
Hope Shifts
Despair Shift
Great Hope
Great Despair
When they have 3 points of Hope, a Hope Shift happens to them, and you cross it off and reset their Hope tally to zero. This continues until you've crossed off all three Hope Shifts. The next time they accumulate 3 Hope points, they have a Great Hope, and you cross it off and uncross all of the Hope Shifts, and continue the cycle until you can't cross off any more Great Hopes. Despair points follow the same process.
Hope Shifts
- A lucky break gets you closer to your goal.
- You are able to heal someone else, removing all of their Despair points, healing a serious injury, or removing alterations by a Despair Shift or Great Despair.
- You have a moment of sincere hope. Remove any Despair points you have.
Despair Shift
- You have an outburst that alienates you from others.
- You have an outburst that injures you or someone else.
- You permanently acquire another fear or twisted wish. Write it on your CS.
Great Hope
- You cause a small miracle to happen.
- Undo any fears, twisted wishes, or alterations to your body caused by a Despair Shift or Great Despair.
- Somehow, life in Astrophel gets a little happier and less panicked.
Great Despair
- Your body permanently takes on an unnatural aspect related to your constellation, your associated emotion, or something that led up to your Great Despair.
- Your magic goes out of control, destroying non-magical things in the immediate area.
- A Nadir wrenches itself from your body, with characteristics and a human target based on what led up to your Great Despair.