Incarnicade is a permadeath rpg about invoking demons from the Ars Goetia for the purpose of learning from them in order to improve your strengths as an invoker, and to pursue your personal interests, whatever they are, whilst trying to survive their encounters.
The Ars Goetia is part of a 17th century spell book that specifically details the 72 demons said to be sealed by King Solomon into magic vessels in the 10th century. The objective of Incarnicade is to summon these demons for personal use and gratification. Modern legends state that these demons have escaped their prisons by unknown means and are currently residing in the hell they came from. You are an invoker with the power to summon them, but you do not initially have the experience to know what you will summon or what the demons are. You can create basic hexes of protection out of chalk around yourself and around the demons, but different demons will react differently, sometimes negatively to these hexes. Your objective is to communicate with the demons you summon without them harming you, with the intent to learn from them or use them to your whims. Demons possess great powers, such as the ability to lead armies, the ability to tell complete truths about anything, and the ability to create ingenious ideas, but not all of them will want to help you. Some of them will try to bait you out of your protective circle, and others will deceptively pretend to be trapped by your protective hexes waiting for the right moment to kill you, amongst many other things..
Features:
This is a two player game primarily about emotional manipulation and enactment, where conflicts are fought with emotions and communication. A player will initiate a conversation by saying inflammatory or emotionally provocative things which will influence how the other player can respond. The end result of this introductory dialogue determines how combat will play out between you and the enemy via a change of the players emotions. For example anger will limit their effective responses to rage, forcing them to lash out at their opponent. Sadness might lead to the player continuing a dialogue where they try to induce pity and remorse into the opponent to prevent them from causing them further harm. Happiness might lead players to be content with themselves, allowing them to have more control over their decisions, maybe allowing them to leave the conflict entirely. A players ability to enact the emotions they are presented with should determine their effectiveness, as should a players response to these emotional displays. The conflict is won when a player can show complete indifference to their opponent whilst exploiting their vulnerabilities.
The game would rely on motion controls as a varying majority of human communication is made via body language such as our articulation, followed by our tone of voice and our words. How a person carries their presence should as a result be visible when they communicate their emotions for the sake of detail and accuracy, and above all else immersion.
Features:
- A game where outcomes are determined by performances
- Players success is determined by their ability to emotionally effect one another through their acting
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