Hey everyone, E again. Today’s post is about Death and how we’re handling it in Ash and Flowers.

Dre knew from the beginning ever since she started poking at making a game that she wanted Death to not be handled the way it normally would in a lot of games and I immediately agreed with her. I haven’t really played any TTRPGs but have had the chance to sit in on a few sessions while Dre played and felt pretty unimpressed with how a lot of things were handled mechanics wise in the games she was playing. The both of us agreed that Death needed to mean something and we also wanted it to feel like an opportunity for character growth and change.

This was something that was explored a little bit in two of the short stories that Dre wrote for our NPC Isteen who willingly chooses to die and come back. You can read the two short stories Here and Here.

It did take a little while and after even getting some feedback from some friends, we were able to piece together a more concrete playable interpretation of our Death mechanic – The Death Seer.

The ultimately goal was for Death to feel like a consequence because it is. It means you didn’t succeed at keeping your PC alive and now there’s the consequence of that failure that you have to deal with.

We did, however, want there to be some way to alleviate the effects of it because while we want it to feel like a consequence, we didn’t want it to feel like you were being penalized for that failing (at least not at first), and wanted to also include a neat effect as a result to add a bit of flavor to being a Death Seer.

We’re still tweaking things a bit but this is a preview of it’s current state and overall, we’re pretty glad with where it’s going.

We hope you enjoy.

Cheers.