Cataclysmic Bliss

Premise

In the year 0 of the Final Calendar, an alien race known as the Despair attacked humanity and destroyed the homeland through the power of massive humanoid psychic weapons that caused mass suicides simply by their presences and overwhelmed any with the mental fortitude to resist with incredible power. Society collapsed overnight, and those who somehow avoided the worst of the disaster were forced beneath the land where the psychic powers of the aliens could not reach them. There, for decades humanity struggled painfully and eeked a pitiful existence beneath the crumbling ruins of the old world until the aliens' weakness was discovered.

Harnessing the very same psychic technology as the Despair used, humanity mounted a counter-offensive using the power of joy. Those first generation pilots, often called bliss drivers in reference to where their power is obtained from, were a particular sort, with twisted emotions that allowed them to revel in battle and grow stronger by fighting. Their growth was unparalleled, overwhelming even the alien menace and coming to dominate them with powers hitherto unseen. The war-ecstatics (and later Deviants), as they became to be known were eventually rejected by humanity as their passions led them to become too twisted and exiled into space by the massed armies of newer (but inevitably weaker) bliss drivers.

Humanity has rebuilt a new society on the ruins of the old, a saccharine, nonviolent society of mandated happiness where the power of human joy has granted humanity power over the cosmos, the elements of nature and even their own evolution. Spread out across the stars, stronger than ever- and yet the knowledge that something greater still is out there looms.

That fear has eaten away at the joy of humanity. You, bliss driver have enjoyed a privileged lifestyle where your ever whim and need was catered to, your life structured to provide challenge and hardship to make your experiences more real and intense than those of an ordinary person. In many cases, your neurochemistry itself has been adjusted to experience greater peaks- at the cost of deeper lows. You have heard of the Deviants and the victory they brought to humanity at cost to themselves, and have spent your life training for a war you hoped to never fight.

Now it is the year 1000 of the Final Calendar, the Deviants have returned.

Game Mechanics

Joy

Joy is the essential component of bliss divers, who have to harness their emotional highs to unleash the power stolen Despair technology. It is both the fuel and the fire, allowing pilots perform dramatic expressions of psychic power in and out of the cockpit and also represents their stamina in combat. In addition to acting as 'health points' for the character and absorbing damage from net successes, the pool to resist attacks is actually the average of the character's maximum and current Joy (so a character with a stat rating of 5 but a temporary rating of 1 has a defense pool of 3 against attacks). Signature moves also expend a single Joy to use due to the risky and draining nature of these attacks.

This is especially dangerous, as any net successes inflicted on a character with 0 or less Joy at the time of the attack will be permanently taken out of the fight. No attack can disable a character this way without first lowering their pool to 0, so temporarily downed characters can still participate in combat until hit with a successful attack in that state.

Should a character find themselves low on Joy, they may elect to spend a round reminiscing about something pleasant in order to recover and in exchange for doing no other combat actions that round may choose to roll their lowest attribute and add the successes to their Joy pool. Alternatively, a character can spend a fate point to refill their pool entirely instead.

Each character has a Joy stat equal to their highest pilot attribute and starting Joy equal the stat unmodified (meaning that Extremophiles start at half capacity).

Combat

Combat follows a simple rock-paper-scissors dynamic with the three mecha statistics, with Guts > Depth > Heart in pilot mode and Overwhelming Force < Broken Power < Hard Work in mecha mode. When attacking or defending with the advantaged attribute against the one vulnerable to it, the character multiplies their total successes on the die roll by 1.5 (round up). In a case of a tie, the advantaged attribute wins.

Combat is first done by rolling a 1d10 which establishes initiative for that round (with Angel-type mecha rolling 1d10+2 and Gestalts rolling twice and taking the better result), higher-scoring characters acting first. A character with a roll of 10 or higher can act again at the end of the initiative scale, gaining a second action at the init slot of (result -10). In addition to the normal advantages that rolling above grants, a higher-scoring character declares which attribute they are using in the resolution of any attack even if they are attacking.

Character Generation

Chargen is done in two seperate steps, one for the pilot and a second for the unit themselves. The nature of bliss drivers and their psychic machines means that the "character" is ostensibly both, which will be represented in the language.

Pilot

Traits

Each character can choose two traits at chargen, to help round out their characters. Some of these do not add strict mechanical benefits, but affect how others perceive them and might have long-term game impacts.

• Atavist: Atavists are rare humans that feel their strongest joy on the battlefield, making them both supremely dangerous but also valuable with the return of the Deviants. This has other gameplay effects. Incompatible with Luxuries.
• Cryogenic: Cryogenics are people who elect to remain in cold sleep rather than live in the current era for any number of reasons. Many Cryogenics are survivors from the Despair invasion who felt they had no place in the New World. In addition to ignoring a single success from any hostile psychic attack targeting them, they might have secret and valuable knowledge, and get the benefit of having pre-New World common sense. Incompatible with Luxuries.
• Extremopath: Extremopaths are people prone to higher levels of joy but also have lower emotional zero-points, due to medications, rare neurological disorders or intentional tinkering. Extremopaths have a doubled Joy rating but can be driven to negative values through attacks, at which point they cannot act. Worse still, a depleted extremopath cannot naturally regenerate in combat if driven to negatives, requiring that a teammate take an action to help them recover. Incompatible with Flatliner.
• Flatliner: Some people have lower emotional highs and 'emotional intelligence', and are labelled flatliners by the officials of the New World. Flatliners are emotionally resilient, and so considered to always be at half their maximum Joy, but cannot rise or fall above it. In combat, this has the effect of making them auto-recover to their static Joy rating if they take damage and use a recovery action, and do not spend Joy for special moves. Incompatible with Extremopath.
• Luxuries: A member of the privileged class, with access to the best resources and entertainment. A member of the Luxuries (and any friends they bring along) double their recovered Joy in downtime as long as it involves conspicuous (and possibly innapropriate given the wartime) consumption. Incompatible with Atavist or Cryogenic.
• New (Wo)man: A modified or artificial human with substantial artificial features. This allows for parlor tricks, an unusual upbringing and cat ears.
• Prodigy: Prodigies are exceptional products of the educational system which tries to raise as many bliss drivers without ruining them with stress. Being labelled a prodigy can involve any number of things, although those that take this trait can either have their attribute maximums raised by one or have a minimum Joy rating one higher than their normal (which is 0).
• Twin Joys: People with two genuine passions are rare, but not impossible. Those capable of splitting their passion can regain Joy from either of these activities at the usual rate, giving them great flexibility in their recuperative abilities.
• Sex Appeal: Beautifying the world was the first step in improving general happiness to resist another Despair invasion- the next step naturally being doing the same to the populace. The act of seeing a person with Sex Appeal for the first time in a scene restores 1 Joy, and people generally treat such attractive people better.

Attributes

Pilots have 9 points to spend in three attributes which loosely define their capabilities, with a cap of 5 and minimum of 1. Each attribute point also gives a single quality to their attribute, with a different one taken each rank. A character's Joy gauge is equal to the sum of their two highest attributes, and their lowest attribute is the one rolled to recover Joy in combat.

• Guts: Represents raw charisma, physical power and endurance. Vulnerable to heart, overpowers depth. Valid qualities: strong, huge, parties hard, yelling, etc.
• Depth: Represents intelligence, creativity and knowledge. Vulnerable to guts, penetrates heart. Valid qualities: cool, obscure, hard to read, secret skill, etc.
• Heart: Represents innocence, emotional endurance but also wisdom and maturity. Vulnerable to depth and placates guts. Valid qualities: sensitive, poetic, ingenue, kindhearted.

Mecha

Types

Mecha are split into taxonomic types to represent their general appearance and fighting style. Each has a specific once-a-fight maneuver that can be executed, and a static bonus.

• Angel: Rather than an ironic usage, angels are usually elegant, humanoid winged bliss patterns that fly in their natural state. They gain the flight technique for free, and automatically move faster than any non-Angel types (including Valravn). Once per fight, an angel can spread its wings and unleash a signature move that incorporates all of its techniques simultaneously, without this counting for the cooldown of regular moves.
• Defender: Defender are tough humanoid bliss patterns that excel in melee combat with multiple targets, with thick armor and solid limbs. They reduce damage by one point, and after activating their once per fight effect can ignore all damage dealt to them until hit with an attack that deals more net damage than the pilot's current Joy rating.
• Gestalt: Gestalt bliss patterns are among the rarest, often only occurring between between pilots who are twins, child-long friends or particularly intense lovers. These machines have two cockpits, and allow two pilots to pool their Joy and act together in a single mecha. At the mecha chargen phase, each pilot assigns five points to the mecha's attributes themselves and selects a single signature move individually, and then create a third together from the remaining techniques.
• Warrior: Warriors are aggressive-looking machines designed to inflict as much damage as possible. They deal one automatic damage in combat as long as they score a single net success on attacks, and once per fight can target every enemy on the field at once, rolling a single attack that is applied to all of them at once. This can be a signature move.
• Valravn: Valravn are transforming bliss patterns that can shift between a humanoid and usually flying form. Valravn are considered to have an extra 2 techniques on reserve they may swap out with others at any time. Once per fight, they may swap out all of their techniques and immediately reassign and refill their signature techniques. These changes revert at the end of the fight.

Attributes

Mecha have 9 points to spread between three attributes, representing the manifestation pattern of the bliss driver's psychic power. Each attribute has a minimum of 0 and no maximum, although overspecialized psychic types have their own problems.

• Overwhelming Force: Resonant with but not necessarily indicative of high guts, overwhelming force is the most direct bliss pattern, focused on moving the fastest, shooting the biggest blasts, hitting the hardest. There is nothing subtle about it, which allows to trash hard work but winds up easily trumped by broken power. Valid techniques: [dramatic something] sword, [adjective] flight, [dramatic something] slash, [dramatic something] annihilator beam.
• Broken Power: Resonant with but not necessarily indicative of high depth, broken power reflects a bliss pattern which is deceptive, entrapping and indirect. Broken power is cheap, but it easily defeats overwhelming force by stepping around and letting the opponent wear itself out. On the other hand, hard work easily figures broken power out and can catch it in a feint. Valid techniques: homing beams, teleportation, invisibility, jamming.
• Hard Work: Resonant with but not necessarily indicative of high heart, Hard Work encompasses of combat endurance, toughness and reliable performance, as well as sensory abilities. It is balanced, allowing it to defeat Broken Power through consistency and seizing onto tricks before it's too late, but also lacks specialist terms on which it can engage overwhelming force with an advantage. Valid techniques: [something] sword, [something] shield, psidar, heavy armor, [something] cannon.

Signature Moves

By combining techniques, characters can create their own signature moves, powerful expressions of Joy that can be used to steal victory. In practice the character has up to three signature moves, which may be built by combining any of their techniques. However, each technique can only be used once in any single move and a move has a cooldown period equal to the total number of techniques it incorporates. In exchange, their attack gains a number of automatic successes equal to half the total number of techniques included, rounding up.

These should ultimately have names symbolic of the character's personality and source of Joy, even if the results are eclectic and unconventional. Any mechanical effects will be decided on based on the flavor and style, with powers that are creative favored over those meant to sound merely powerful.