Playing an Ascendant in Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate

Hey! I thought it would be fun to write a short post about what type of character you'll be playing in my next game, Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate. As most of you know, I'm a fan of low fantasy, low magic settings were you play a human at the bottom of the power and societal ladder, against a ruthless world. This is my preferred style of game, but I'm starting to realize I also enjoy the opposite side of the spectrum. The one were you are basically a super-powered individual, definitely above your peers, with fantastic powers at your disposal. This doesn't mean that things are necessarily easy for your character, just that they will be blasting and zipping around the battlefield, instead of bleeding out in a ditch after receiving a single strike. If we were to make a scale with my games, you'd have Broken Shores (or Sacrifice if you play as a commoner) at the "I'm human garbage and I like it" side of the scale, and Riftbreakers at the "I'm a living god in the making, but monsters can still kick my ass" on the opposite end.

RHBF most definitely falls into the Riftbreakers side of the scale. Your character is an Ascendant, a person belonging to a planet that has been taken over by the Ruthless Heavens, a sort of all-powerful consciousness that assimilates whole solar systems into what is called the Path of Ascendancy. Why this happens is a whole other post, but the important thing is that those who survive this integration into the Path gain access to new powers and abilities that manifest as Skills. These can range from turning into a wind elemental to blast your enemies, to simple but efficient attacks, fire blasts, levitation, and anything in between. 

Your character represents the best your home world and society has to offer. They might have been nobody when they started off, but the trials and tribulations they went through due to the Ruthless Heavens assimilating their planet into the Path of Ascendancy has made them distinctly above what anyone thought possible before. Your character starts the game with already above-average Attributes: before the arrival of the Ruthless Heavens, a normal person could maybe hope to reach a score of 14 if they worked hard on one single aspect, while you will begin the game with several Attributes above that, and the knowledge that you’ll reach numbers much higher than that. As such, your character is capable of withstanding punishment that would immediately kill a regular person, as well as extreme temperatures, sleepless nights, lack of provisions, and even short periods in the vacuum of space.

As an Ascendant, your path to power is divided in Ranks. Again, that's a subject for another post, but to help you understand how beyond you are from a normal mortal, here are some of the benefits you get from each Rank:

• An Initiate no longer needs to sleep, although they still need to meditate an hour a day to settle their Soul. They can withstand the vacuum of space for 1 hour, and have a lifespan of 200 years.

• An Adept no longer needs to eat. They can withstand the vacuum of space for 1 day, and have a lifespan of 1,000 years.

• An Archon no longer needs to breathe, and can withstand the vacuum of space for 1 week. They have a lifespan of 10,000 years.

• A Hegemon no longer has a heartbeat, and can withstand the vacuum of space for 1 month. They have a lifespan of 100,000 years.

• An Eidolon no longer has functional organs, having become a body/spirit gestalt. They can withstand the vacuum of space indefinitely, and are immortal (although they can still die due to violence or disease).

So as you can see, your character will indeed become god-like. Of course, this will only happen in they don't anger the Ruthless Heavens, and fight hard to get as strong as possible so they don't become just some light sparring session for someone stronger than they are. And don't get me wrong: you will struggle for survival, and face terrible beasts and warriors. You will suffer brutal injuries, lose limbs, be frozen to death, and burned to ash. The Ruthless Heavens only have interest in the strongest, most capable individuals, and they aren't called "ruthless" without a reason...