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Welcome to the Star Wars: A Rogue's Story wiki!
The main purpose of this wiki is to outline features that need to be added/completed before 1.0.
There are 3 pages on this wiki:
- Home (this page) - essentially, a design document that avoids technical details
- Tech - outlines speculative technical requirements and goals
- Old Home Page - a depreciated design document saved for historical purposes
Please note that this page is still under construction and is nowhere near completion.
Table of Contents
Star Wars: A Rogue's Story is framed by the idea of it being a Jedi training simulator. The player is playing a recently promoted Jedi Knight using the simulator to further his knowledge and training. The simulator frame is used to explain why the game features a wide variety of environments and why it is structured as a fairly traditional Roguelike dungeon. The player character is capable of advancing along two different paths: permanent and temporary.
Permanent upgrades persist through death or failure, allowing the player to unlock new playstyles (classes [Jedi specializations]), lightsaber components (different types of hilts, crystals, and focusing lenses), Force powers (e.g., Force pull), and passive enhancements (Meditation, regeneration, etc).
Temporary upgrades only exist for a "run". A run is defined as from the time the player presses "Start simulation" and ends at the time when the player character dies, fails through some other manner, or wins. Temporary upgrades include things like the content of the player character's inventory, the score of the PC's attributes as determined by special collectible items, and the set of Force powers available to the player on that run.
Star Wars: A Rogue's Story has three attributes that heavily influence how the game is played. The attributes are, alphabetically, Constitution (CON), Strength (STR), and Wisdom (WIS).
Each point of an attribute beyond its initial point, 1, increases the corresponding effects, multiplicatively, by 25% (1.25). Because attributes are currently capped at 9, this gives an effective maximum multiplier of ~6x (5.96x [1.25^8]).
Constitution influences the player character's maximum hit points. In addition, because hit point regeneration is almost always done as a percentage of the maximum, Constitution makes the PC a more effective healer. The player begins with 100 hit points and can reach a theoretical maximum of ~600 (596.04).
Strength influences the player character's damage dealt with lightsaber attacks, jump attacks, and effectively all damage that isn't a Force power. If a lightsaber's components allow it to deal 2d6 damage then it will deal an average of 7 damage per swing with a Strength of 1. With a Strength of 9, this is effectively raised to ~42 (41.72).
Wisdom influences the player character's willpower and overall connection with the Force. The player begins with 50 will points and can reach a theoretical maximum of ~300 (298.02). Wisdom increases the damage done by applicable Force powers in exactly the same manner as Strength changes lightsaber damage. In addition, Wisdom can increase the utility of certain Force powers. For example, if Force push normally moves a target 2 tiles away, a PC with 9 Wisdom will push the target back ~12 (11.92) tiles back.
The player character is at, a bare minimum, a Jedi Knight. This comes with several built-in advantages when it comes to tackling the simulation. The player character always wields a lightsaber, a powerful and customizable tool & weapon. Beyond that, the player character possesses two innate Force abilities that do not require permanent or temporary unlocking: Force sense and Jedi agility.
The lightsaber is a highly effective tool no matter how the player chooses to customize it. It can swiftly dispatch foes and destructible objects alike. The lightsaber itself is a permanent piece of equipment that can't be unequipped, but its pieces may be changed or upgraded. Lightsaber components include: the crystal, the focusing lens, and the hilt. The crystal determines what attributes is enhanced by the lightsaber. The focusing lens grants the lightsaber a flat, non-random damage bonus based on its rank (+1 to +5) and adds an effect that has a random chance of occurring (e.g., bleeding, stunning). The hilt modifies the core functionality of the lightsaber. Many of the hilt modifications depend upon the game's combo system, which is detailed more below.
Force sense allows the player character to see an outline of every floor of the simulation (dungeon). This allows the player a greater sense of agency when it comes to planning out their route for tackling the floor. While this power is great, it does have its limits: the player character's Force sense will not reveal the positions of enemies, items, or the staircase to the next floor.
Jedi agility allows the player character to roll through an enemy or, if that is not possible (the enemy is adjacent to a wall and the player would roll into the wall), swap positions with an enemy. This allows the player to have a greater involvement with tactical positioning despite limited access to ranged weapons and escape tools. In addition, Jedi agility enables the player character to lunge at an enemy, stepping up to 1 tile and attacking a foe. This reduces the need for excessive turn wasting and rewards a more calculatedly aggressive style of play. Demonstrations of all three Jedi agility techniques are below.
In the following demonstrations, "@" is the player, "." is an empty ground tile, and "o" is a generic enemy.
- Roll-through: (@o.) -> (.o@)
- Swap: (@o) -> (o@)
- Lunge: (@.o) -> (.@o)
The player character is capable of performing combos when fighting in melee combat with their lightsaber. By default, a lightsaber deals 1d6+0 damage and has 3 combo "steps". Each step of the combo advances the number of die used by 1. Moving or using a Force power will reset the player character's combo back to the first step. Utilizing Jedi agility will not reset the player character's combo progress. In addition, finishing a combo will start a new combo at the first step.
- On the first swing in combat, the lightsaber will deal 1d6+0 damage.
- On the second swing in combat, the lightsaber will deal 2d6+0 damage.
- On the third swing in combat, the lightsaber will deal 3d6+0 damage.
- On the fourth swing in combat, the lightsaber will deal 1d6+0 damage.
Different types of lightsaber hilts will modify the behavior of combos. For example, the shoto hilt will change the player character's damage range from 1d6 to 1d8, but will reduce the number of combo steps to 2 (1d8, 2d8). The cross hilt will change the combo damage progress to (1d6+2, 2d6+0, 3d6-2). The double-bladed hilt will reduce the player character's damage range to 1d4, but increase the number of combo steps to 5! (1d4, 2d4, 3d4, 4d4, 5d4).
Combos are meant to be an effective replacement for missing as a player, which is generally a frustrating experience that lacks agency beyond simply stacking a to-hit stat. Combos reward the player for starting combat in a smart location and using Jedi agility to avoid getting surrounded. Combos penalize players for being overly evasive or for trying to "kite" foes, while also adding an additional cost to focusing on Force powers.
The player character has two different numbers that track damage taken: hit points and will points. Like my previous game, Dead Man Walking, the player will only die once both are completely depleted. Unlike that game, will points serve a far greater purpose and are meant to introduce a sense of risk vs reward. In addition to serving as backup hit points, will points are the fuel for extraordinarily powerful Force powers. Note that hit points can be regenerated through a variety of means, but will points are only recovered by taking a staircase or under special conditions.
Star Wars, as a general rule of thumb, is a universe that emphasizes evasion. A side character wearing the most advanced armor will die to a single blaster bolt or lightsaber chop. Thus, most of the survivors in the universe make great usage of dodging, parrying, or simply positioning themselves to not get hit in the first place. To at least partially recreate this idea the game will not have a way to reduce incoming damage by integer or by percentage (as blocking or armor might do in other games), but will instead rely completely on evasion techniques and hit (and will) points.
The player character is meant to be something of a Heroic figure and will thus not die to a single blaster bolt or lightsaber chop. Beyond that, the PC is a combat veteran and Jedi Knight - his or her blows will not miss outside of extraordinary circumstances.
Despite these many advantages, the player character ultimately has the deck stacked against them. How do they keep up? Evasion: dodging and parrying. Dodging is influenced by the player character's robe and is represented as a % chance of completely avoiding the damage dealt by a melee or ranged weapon. The player character's chance to dodge is doubled against ranged weapons when moving. Parrying is a specific defense against melee attackers that can completely negate incoming damage as long as the player doesn't move. Like dodging, parry is represented as a % chance, but it is derived from the player character's lightsaber hilt.
The player character has a default chance to dodge & parry of 5%. A +1 robe provides a +5% chance to dodge, while a +5 robe provides a +25% chance to dodge. A +1 hilt provides a +5% chance to parry, a +5 hilt provides a +25% chance to parry. The maximum attainable dodge score is to have a +5 robe and be actively moving - this will leave the PC with a 70% chance to dodge ranged attacks. The maximum attainable parry score is to have a +5 hilt and be standing still - this will leave the PC with a 30% chance to parry melee attacks.
Having both a +5 robe and a +5 hilt will effectively reduce the average damage taken per round against melee attacks by 51%. Having a +5 robe and being on the move will effectively reduce the average damage taken per round against ranged attacks by 70%.
It is tradition in Roguelikes for cursed items to be a double negative: they're not only worse than normal items, but they're also a pain to get out of your inventory. In Star Wars: A Rogue's Story, cursed items are a gamble.
Cursed equipment is generated with +1 to the current enchantment roll. For example, let's say equipment dropping on the PC's current floor would normally roll between +3 and +5 (inclusively). A cursed item on that floor would roll between +4 and +6 (inclusively). What's the trade-off? Two things: the player can't unequip that item until the start of the next floor and it is considered to be gambling with a power beyond the player character's understanding. Thus, they incur a dark side penalty. More on that later.
Cursed items will be marked with a distinctive red background color. Note that background colors are rarely used outside of this purpose so it will be easy to tell when an item is cursed. However, the player is not permitted to know the precise enchantment level of the item or exactly what type of item it is. A player would see "a cursed hilt", not "a cursed double-bladed hilt".
The Dark Side is a big part of Star Wars lore and it explains why Jedi tread a narrow path. The player character is no exception. Dark side abilities and advantages are universally valuable in the moment, but they have long-term consequences - especially if the player chooses to rely too much on the dark side too quickly. As a general rule of thumb, the player can get away with one misconduct per floor, but any more will start to have serious consequences.
Misconducts (dark side actions) include the following:
- Equipping a cursed item (+1)
- Attacking an unconscious foe (+1)
- Killing an unconscious foe (+1, effectively +2 because of the above)
- Using a Dark Force power (+1)
Each one of those is generally an advantageous action to take at the time, but is not particularly Jedi-like. Each misconduct will cause the player to gain a point of aggravation. One point of aggravation is forgiven at the start of each floor. Beyond that, however, is dangerous territory.
For each point of aggravation the player has after subtracting one at the start of a floor, two things happen:
- All foes on the floor gain Xd6 turns of tracking against the PC, where X is the aggravation score
- 1dX additional foes are spawned on the floor, where X is the aggravation score
All enemies will find excessive Dark side users faster and there will be more enemies. This is representative of the addictive nature of the Dark side: the player will quickly be put into a position where they will most likely have to take more dark actions to survive floors with a high aggravation score.