Health (HP)
Represents physical vitality. If HP reaches 0, the character falls unconscious or dies based on context.
🎯 Core Character Stats
Resolve
Measures mental fortitude and willpower. Used in resisting fear, illusions, or psionic effects.
Infection
A unique mechanic related to the fungal threat. Infection increases via exposure and spores. Critical thresholds trigger hallucinations, transformation, or loss of agency.
Affinity
Represents the character’s attunement to one of the world’s core forces (Nature, Decay, Dream, Sky). Used in magic, diplomacy, or unlocking faction-based perks.
⚔️ Combat System
Turn Structure
Combat is turn-based. Each round, players can move, act, and use one special ability. Initiative is rolled at the beginning of each encounter.
Action Types
- Standard Action: Attack, cast a spell, interact
- Bonus Action: Use an item, activate ability
- Reaction: Counter, dodge, or defend against triggers
Conditions
Characters may suffer conditions like Poisoned, Stunned, Sporebound, or Glimmerdrunk (a Glimmereach effect).
🧭 Exploration & Travel
Hex Map Movement
Players explore overworlds via a hex grid. Movement is tracked per day, terrain affects speed, and rest points are mapped.
Random Encounters
Each hex has a chance to trigger encounters—combat, lore fragments, NPCs, or dream anomalies.
Environmental Effects
Areas may carry biome traits: Rot Zones (risk of infection), Dream Rifts (altered perception), Sunleaf Canopies (healing/rest), etc.
🎭 Dialogue & Morality
Dialogue System
Branching conversations use a weighted response system (Resolve + Affinity + player choice history). Dialogue influences alliances and story forks.
Reputation & Alignment
Choices affect standing with factions and settlements (e.g., Council of Leaves, Glimmereach Elders). Players may become Exiled, Venerated, or even Mindbound.
🧪 Progression & Upgrades
Leveling
XP gained through quests, combat, and discoveries. Each level grants stat boosts and class traits.
Boons & Afflictions
Unique traits acquired by major events (e.g., “Spore Whisperer” from surviving a dream trial, “Hollowbonded” from aligning with Thalrix).
Items & Crafting
Looted materials, spores, and essence can be combined at special groves or sanctums to create potions, tools, or mutations.
EXAMPLE GAME MODES
🌲 LORASYL GAME MODES
🛡️ Skyfall Defense
Genre: Tactical / survival / timed defense
Concept: Protect Lorasyl’s platforms from waves of sky-based attackers led by Captain Velvorr and the Ashwings.
Gameplay:
- Timed encounters (e.g. every 3 rounds a new wave arrives)
- Use vertical movement, bridges, and animal companions (e.g. giant owls)
- Upgrade defenses between waves (rituals, traps, repairs)
Goal: Survive 5 waves and protect the Heartwood platform
🕵️ Canopy Intrigue
Genre: Roleplay-heavy / social deduction / mystery
Concept: Uncover the saboteur within the Council of Leaves before the village collapses from within.
Gameplay:
- Dialogue encounters, insight/investigation checks
- Unlock trust/suspicion through side quests
- Each long rest accelerates collapse if saboteur isn’t caught
Twist: The saboteur might not know they’re helping a villain...
🌳 The Hollowroot Hunt
Genre: Hex crawl / wilderness exploration
Concept: Hunt Thalrix or sever the rot’s source deep beneath the forest canopy.
Gameplay:
- Explore zones filled with enemies, traps, corrupted spirits
- Collect cleansing materials/relics
- Unpurified long rests carry infection risks
Endgame: Confront Thalrix in a decaying sacred grove
🍄 GLIMMEREACH GAME MODES
🧠 Dream Spore
Genre: Psychological horror / dream-based one-shot
Concept: The party is trapped in a shared hallucination orchestrated by the Rotmind.
Gameplay:
- Surreal dreamscapes and moral dilemmas
- Sense other players’ thoughts/emotions
- If you die in the dream, you awaken infected
Goal: Destroy the dream’s core… or join it
🪱 Infection Protocol
Genre: Investigation / countdown survival
Concept: A plague spreads in Glimmereach — you have 7 days to stop it.
Gameplay:
- Trace patient zero
- Discover the Rotmind’s influence
- Quarantine or cure infected NPCs
Optional: A party member may be secretly infected…
🧫 The Beneathwalk
Genre: Dungeon crawl / dark exploration
Concept: Traverse the Rotmind’s subterranean fungal tunnels.
Gameplay:
- Branching paths of mycelium, psychic echoes
- Hazards like spore traps and hallucination gas
- Encounter bio-luminescent flora and fungus beasts
Final Encounter: Drenzel offers peaceful integration with the hive — can you resist?
🔁 Bonus Mode: ⚖️ Crossroads Convergence
Genre: Multiverse twist / special event
Concept: The fungal infection spreads to Lorasyl — both worlds begin to merge.
Gameplay:
- Two groups: one in Glimmereach, one in Lorasyl
- Actions in one realm affect the other
- Final chapter blends the forest and the fungal in surreal unity
Best for: Dual-group campaigns or epic finales