#flumblr

when I finally went and touched Hearts Game I got obsessed with the idea that, instead of only being a team leader, you the player ALSO got a title and a mask and hearts game persona to play with, as it felt like the "team" creation process was less someone picking people from a shelf and more everyone hanging out in a lobby seeing who else there is around to team up with.

for example, Ivory and Zagel take hearts game on very different scales: Ivory has an entire getup and character he gets into for it, while Zagel doesn't care as much and is literally reusing his Hallowmas mask. I feel like this is the equivalent of how some of the characters are actually masked up as something else, and some of them are... a white cat wearing the mask of a white cat lmao.

here is a fun form of prompts to fill out to ponder this, if you're into that sorta thing:

What's their main way of playing the game? (Do they help progress poisoning, focus on prep, or aid in a different category all together?)

How do they achieve that? (As in, what are they ACTUALLY doing to do that? Hunting and striking with poison claws? Sneaking stuff into the targets drinks? Example: Knight of Livers compiles information and complex plans, but also does duels.)

Is there a fun character quirk you want to especially highlight with the hearts game sona? (All the heartsgame characters seem to have a bonus odd thing going on with them that flavours text but isn't exactly part of what they're doing to aid the game. Example: Knight of Livers is an insurance adjuster.)

What's their mask? (Can have something to do with theming or not. The range is so wide on what is considered an acceptable mask, also. Mask doesn't have to affect name, but I sure make the two connected haha.)

Based on the information above, what is their title?

[Queen / King / Knight / Page / Priest / Fool] of [whatever you want]

For ease of Pondering, here's a quick rundown of the roles from the Wiki, with slight edits:

Pages generate some Progress without requiring much Preparation. They do not generate Preparation. They're usually quickly nerfed if Poison Tolerance gets too high.

Knights generate Preparation and make Progress. With Preparation, Knights can also affect other aspects of the game, like decreasing Tolerance or changing how other cards work.

Queens are primarily for support, combining giving preparations with other varied mechanics, such as clearing a hand or granting a multi-purpose Boon.

Kings can generate large amounts of Progress, given sufficient Preparation. Some Kings can generate Progress without Preparation, while others can generate their own Preparations.

Priests provide a Boon which can make other Accomplices more effective. They can also generate Preparation, Progress, and clear hands.

The Fool behaves similarly to a Knight, but is also affected by all Priest Boons.

Usually the 'whatever you want' part has something to do with technique / theming / the weirdness of the character themselves.

Bonus: What are their two cards? (Every accomplice has 2 cards that show up in game, and most have two choices per card. That's at least four different "actions" for you to ponder about how your character plays the game!)