Austin Walker's new TTRPG is fascinating to me. Realis is built on a strange core mechanic where characters advance by becoming more specialized, and unlike in the average game where specialist skills are added on top of generic skills, here there's a serious trade-off. A weak ability to win fights grows into a medium ability to win swordfights grows into a powerful ability to win swordfights against royal guards. A weak ability to track prey grows into a medium ability to track prey at night grows into a powerful ability to track prey at night on the tundra. Austen talks about how this is partially inspired by Berserk's changes over decades, and how this will encourage players to start with simplistic, archetypal characters, and mold them over time and through play, into something more unique and specific both in gameplay and storytelling terms.
But also this game's core mechanic is literally just about aging, about the beauties and tragedies of aging and hopefully getting good at one thing but losing the chance of getting good at a hundred other things, mastering your life but letting go of other possibilities. Heavy.
