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[starmods]

GAME MECHANICS

Arrival

Characters awaken in the bed of an unfamiliar room, wearing team-colored pajamas, with that fateful dream still bright and familiar in their mind. At their bedside they'll find a "pocket grimoire" and up to three outfits immediately available in their closet—all fitted to their form. They do not, however, arrive with any items they may have had on their person or any other belongings. They're also without their name.

★ Characters will forget their name(s)

Whatever name(s) a character went by will be completely forgotten. This is because their name is serving as their vessel here in the celestial realm. Names are the extension of the soul, which is why the Outer Lord chose to create bodies from them in this manner—the soul will of course sync up swimmingly with a body made from itself, and names can be easily replaced.

Characters won't be able to remember the name(s) of any castmate who's here either, but that's just to ensure nobody has an out from amnesia name hell.

★ OPTIONAL: Characters can lose memories along with their name(s)

Since names are extensions of the soul, it's no surprise that memories are, too. When you've pulled a sticker off your homework, sometimes you peeled off a little too much of the paper, right? Names and memories are like that—when stripping a name from a soul, you miiiiight also catch a memory or twenty. Woops!

This option is for anyone who wants to take some memories from their character immediately upon their arrival for whatever playability interests they have. Just bear in mind that these memories cannot be regained through the course of the Celestrials.

Bodies, Injury, Healing

PROPERTIES: Your character is occupying a body much like their original one, but a little different. For one, it's generally similar to their old one. If they bled green blood, they still bleed green blood. If they had prosthetic limbs, they still have those. If they needed sustenance or rest before, they still need it.

Two, if your character is inhuman or possesses supernatural qualities, there are some limitations imposed on them:

★ Special powers, supernatural strength, enhanced senses, magic, etc, can no longer be used as they had been before. If it's not something a "normal" human can do, they can't do it! However, characters can spend coins to use their abilities each time.

★ Innate powers and passive abilities that run in the background and don't need to be activated (such as regeneration or immortality) are handled the same way as powers and magic: to "use" them they would need to purchase the means to activate them for a duration of time.

★ Inhuman physiological properties that can't quite be turned off aren't completely nulled, but are instead vastly nerfed. If they naturally have rock-hard skin all over that can't pierced or damaged at all? They'll find it's still pretty hard—punching it could hurt the offender's fist—but they're now susceptible to being stabbed among other awful things. If they wanted to reactivate the "full version" of their impenetrable rock skin, it'd have to be activated on a regular basis with coins.

★ Some other inhuman physiological properties may be left as is on a case-by-case basis. A body covered in thick fluff that keeps them warm and cushions some of the pain from a punch, a flubbery body that makes them slippery all the time, a body that can't feel pain/touch/temperature, etc, are also things that COULD be viewed as an advantage, but, per the Outer Lord's ruling, is seen as a moot point. Not everyone will hurt or suffer the same, and that's fine.

★ Characters can keep their disadvantages. If they have unnaturally cold skin, the need to drink blood, eyes that are sensitive to light, etc—it's all still around.

And, three: sustaining damage and injury will affect their memories and identity. After all, their body here is an extension of their soul, now housing the rest of their soul in a far more intricate way than before. When a character's body gets fucked up, their soul gets fucked up, too.

INJURY: Being afflicted with an injury that can feasibly recover (gashes, broken bones, burns, etc) will result in temporary identity issues. They last until the injury is more or less healed. At least one of the following will arise at the player's discretion:

★ (An) emotion (or a range) cannot be experienced or understood
★ Forgetting their interests or preferences
★ Unable to recognize a person, place, or thing
★ The inability to recall details, information, and/or knowledge
★ (Part of) their past becomes foggy and unclear at most, or feels distant like its not theirs
★ Forgetting a recent event (like something that happened in the Celestrials)
★ General forgetfulness and unawareness

—but once they've recovered they'll be fine again. Outright sustaining permanent effects like this from injury is impossible, even if scarring is sustained.

BODY PART LOSS: Characters losing any part of their body (eyes, limbs, organs, etc) will result in permanent identity loss for as long as that body part is missing. This mechanic is an unavoidable consequence. Characters will always lose a facet of themself when they lose a part of their body, even if all they lost was a toe.

These things cannot be returned; characters can only "regain" a lost facet if they can recover that exact body part—something that isn't possible if they lost it from the whims of a trial. However, if another character personally yoinked their eye, but eventually returned it? For the duration of the eye's absence some memories are gone—but they return when the eye's reinserted. If that eye's gone for good, so is the memory.

For each body part lost, one of the following will occur:

★ The permanent inability to experience and/or understand an emotion(s or range)
★ No recollection of an interest, hobby, fear, etc.
★ Unable to recognize/remember a person, place, or thing.
★ Forgetting specific details, information, and/or knowledge
★ The typical memory loss you see in teamnesia, ie forgetting a memory.

Interpret this all within reason. You don't have to dwell over something like the ratio of "body part lost to identity lost," so long as you're not doing something like deciding the loss of a finger has COMPLETELY obliterated a character's entire childhood. That's a bit much! But otherwise, play with the rule of fun.

The only thing a character can't forget is their memory of the fateful dream that brought them here (which includes the wish itself.)

And if they replace their eye with a different one? Well, if it's a prosthetic nothing strange or special happens, but if it's someone else's eye, they gain the memories that person lost instead.

ORGANIC vs PROSTHETIC BODY PARTS: Your character will be able to replace any missing body parts, and they have two options to choose from: the free organic body parts, or the artificial prosthetics that will need to be purchased.

Organic body parts are those that have been harvested by other means, and are indeed fleshy stuff—with the identity of another person attached. After all, this isn't your body part you're getting back, you're getting back the body part of someone else... likely not the part of someone else currently in the competition because otherwise they could just get their own, I mean, why not.

However, by attaching any organic body part in place of the missing one, your character will receive a single "identity" fragment of the body part's original owner. It could be a new interest, a new fear, a new perspective on life, new knowledge, a new learned skill, or even a new memory—one that'll feel intimate, like it really is theirs, with emotions that feel vivid. If your character lost their means to feel happiness, it's also possible for their new organic body part to return it.

And if that organic body part is removed, so is the exact identity facet that come with it.

The only way to avoid getting someone else's memories is to get a prosthetic, but they'd have to exchange coins for it. This limb won't look real, of course, though some may come near. Some are very clearly prosthetics and have unique styles, and some have pros and cons with little perks.

DEATH: When your character dies, there are two ways to go about it:

Dreaming: It'll seem no different from falling into a deep sleep (except that it was likely accompanied with some pain and suffering.) They tune out from the world, and dream of something they care about—something that brings them comfort, security, or joy—that is now unattainable or out of reach in some figurative or literal manner of speaking. It can range from something very trivial ("My favorite burger place was getting further and further the more I ran to it") to something rather stressful ("No matter how much I cried out, my girlfriend ignored me and acted like I wasn't there, up until she was standing at the altar with someone else.")

These death-dreams aren't meant to be traumatic, per se. Through these death-dreams, characters are forced to recall something they care about—just in unpleasant circumstances. Even the things they have forgotten can come up in a death-dream. If they lost every memory of their most favorite loved one from back home, it's still possible for them to come up in a dream like this; they won't recognize them, but they'll recognize the fondness they felt (even if they lost that emotion, too.)

Ghost: Your dead character, until they're revived, can be an intangible ghost who can't go far from their body, but can see what's going on and make commentary. And the only ones who can hear them? Are the Constellations... and other ghosts, of course. When they're finally revived their experience will have a dreamlike feeling to it (though it definitely happened.)

REVIVAL: If a character dies and needs revived, they must be revived by a character's stigma, a character's own revival power, or their Constellation. The Outer Lord prevents Constellations from reviving their sponsored immediately (though they're certainly capable.)

But when your character is revived, no matter the means, there is a very good chance they're revived without a body part—even if they didn't lose anything before dying. It costs spirit material to bring you back to life, after all, so sure... let's use an eye to bring you back! You can get a new one, but you do lose part of your memory/identity as usual with losing body parts. ♥

HEALING: Everyone's natural healing is accelerated—depending on the severity, injuries may last anywhere from 1-3 days. Untreated injuries may incur scarring, of course, though scarring has no adverse effect on the character's identity. It's just a reminder that they (got) fucked up. Some Constellations may bestow healing stigmas, just as some characters may have their own healing powers they can pay to use.

Pocket Grimoire

Characters will discover a team-colored Pocket Grimoire™ at their bedside. It's a magical book, one that isn't too big or too small, that functions as a source of real-time information, and a communication device with only some caveats.

ICly Available Information:

★ Character profiles, sorted by team with the entire first page visible
★ Constellation profiles, with the stigmas listed in the sponsored character's book
★ Daily freebies order forms

Functionality:

★ Characters can either write in the book with the pen that came attached, use text-to-speech, or utilize the "swipe" feature. By swiping their finger along the page, their thoughts will become written word. Unfortunately, the swipe feature have a major flaw: it can put more of the writer's thought on paper than it should. Sometimes they're stressed and all their worries come pouring out!

★ The next point: anything the character's already put onto a page can't be erased. Their only choice is to scribble it out (which the receiver will see on their end as well.)

★ Messages can be sent to anyone on any team. There are two ways to handle it: like Discord messages (real-time with usernames) or like emails (non-real-time with @celestrials.com as their domain.) Group communication is also possible, behaving as chatrooms and chain letters, but anonymity is not.

★ This can otherwise be used like a normal notebook. Characters can write in it, tear non-essential pages out, use bookmarks, store things between the pages, etc. There's plenty of blank pages available.

Trials

Trials are the means of testing and challenging characters. The coins characters get from Constellations don't go towards helping them win the Celestrials. No, they need to focus on the points they receive from trials. After all, only the teams in the top half of the points rankings get to go home alive with their wish in hand.

TYPES: As stolen from "Alice in Borderlands," Celestrials categorizes the trials by type:

♣ Clubs - trials of teamwork, involving aspects like cooperation, balance, and trust.
♥ Hearts - trials of psychology, involving aspects like manipulation, emotion, and the psyche.
♦ Diamonds - trials of intelligence, involving aspects like logic, strategy, and probability.
♠ Spades - trials of physical strength, involving aspects like endurance, survival, and combat.

It's definitely possible for there to be overlap between trial types (for example, Club trials will always invoke elements from other trial types for sure) but the Outer Lord tries to label the trial based on the most significant element.

POINTS: Trials reward points in a manner of ways, but it's usually based on placement; how teams perform in relation to one another. It may be a "1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc" situation, or one where there are tiers like "top tier, middle tier, lower tier." Regardless, it'll all function the same: the team(s) who performed above the rest is rewarded the most points, and the team(s) who fell short is rewarded the least points, if any at all.

CODE BY TESSISAMESS