🜉."> Scenes ⟡ Last Odyssey SRD

Last Odyssey

Scenes

Heroes are agents of change, and when they pursue change they will also accrue the power of 🜉. Earning 🜉 is what allows players to advance their tier, overcome trials, and save themselves from True Death. In Last Odyssey, for a Hero to earn 🜉, their player must initiate a Scene. A Scene is a dramatic cutscene that somehow either directly or indirectly contextualizes the emotions that a character is currently experiencing in a way that would not be communicated by ordinary play.

Beginning a Scene

To begin a Scene, a player must pose the question that the Scene will revolve around, and then state the answer to that question that their character is most afraid or anxious of. During the Scene, the player accumulating the most 🜉 will be the Scene’s main protagonist, and the other players will serve as the main supporting cast, taking on the roles of supporting characters or parts of the Scene itself, such as the lighting, the camera, or the music. The GM is then the one to fill any extra parts if needed.

Each player may initiate a Scene once per game session, although they can participate in as many Scenes as they like in supporting roles. Scenes can be as abstract or concrete as Heroes want, ranging from childhood flashbacks to confessions of love to arguments with God or with a pantheon of gods, but the questions posed will always be about something the character deeply values, whether that be a Relationship, a beloved object, an occupation, a title, or even their sense of themselves, and end when their question is properly contextualized. The outcome of a Scene will determine the fate of its object depending on the question that was posed. For example, if the Hero is afraid that their actions will result in dishonor, then the result of the outcome die determines whether or not they are publicly judged. The notable exception to this is if the Hero’s life was at risk, in which case the worst outcome is always that they experience True Death. In this case, players may spend 3 🜉 they had prior to the 🜉 they would earn from risking their life in order to save their character, but not the 🜉 their character would have earned from risking their life during the Scene.

Ending a Scene

A Scene ends once sufficient context for the central character’s anxiety is established, at which point every player in the supporting cast will accumulate a single 🜉, and the main character of the scene will accumulate 1-3 🜉 depending on what they risked. In general, the worse the possible outcome, the more 🜉 they earn. Then, the players are free to distribute the total 🜉 they earned during a Scene between all of the characters at the table as they like. Any remaining 🜉 in excess of their maximum is taken by the GM, and either disappears or is given to one of the campaign’s Antagonists. Once the scene is over, the GM casts the outcome die. If the result is a 5 or below, the outcome that the Hero was afraid of comes to pass, while if the result is above a 5 the thing that the player risked may remain as it was if this is what they desire.

What Counts as a Scene?

Because Scenes are special forms of story resolution, they cannot trigger as a part of combat, or any other structured form of play. For example, if a character is doing something that counts as a trial, they cannot also earn 🜉. With this in mind, there are five scenarios which are always valid opportunities for a Scene:

Players are always allowed to count Inspirations and Relationships as things that are important to their character for the sake of earning 🜉. If something is important to their character but is not a listed Inspiration or Relationship, then whether they can earn 🜉 by posing a question about it is a matter of GM fiat. Here are some possibilities for what counts as important to a character:

Joint Scenes

Sometimes, players may want to risk the Relationships between Heroes. More specifically, if what they fear involves an aspect of a Hero that their player has control over, the outcome should not be decided by the die. Instead, the outcome is decided entirely by the other player, with no input from the first one. For example, if one Hero reveals a secret to another, then the other Hero’s player decides whether they accept or reject it, and this cannot be challenged — although they could change their mind later on. After the Scene is over, 🜉 is earned as normal.

Example Scenes