Design Diary: Legal Combat

I think a great frustration I have with games is how many of them center violent conflict. I don't have anything against violence, I think there are a great many times it is necessary. But the over representation of violence in games and media in general suggests it is like a centerpiece in our lives. Our lives happen to have a great deal of conflict, but little of it gets resolved through violence: there's heated arguments, social politics, legal battles, etc...

When I heard about the 1 card mosaic strict framework, I wanted to introduce a conflict system that was not combat centric. I was inspired by Phoenix Wright and wanted to create a legal battle system. Having a single card didn't give me a lot to work with, but I just needed enough to equip the players to draft the rest of the rules themselves.

I took a lot of inspiration from Isaac Asimov's 3 laws of robotics, except I broadened their scope to encompass more than just humans. The game flips the script and imagines a territory that's governed by robot-like entities that enforces these laws on all sentient creatures.

There aren't any random elements to the game, everything has to be resolved through logical consistencies with the law. Players will of course have disagreements as to how to address ambiguities and edge cases, and they'll have to roleplay how these logical beings would rule in such cases. The game doesn't provide a means of amending a ruling. Once the players decide how something is enforced, they'll have to be consistent going forward, giving them less and less wiggle room during their visits in Lēglē.

I hope you enjoy your stay in Lēglē, and the way it shifts the dynamics of your modern fantasy game!

-XOe