For a while now, I've been working on a world-building game built using Cortex Prime. For those unfamiliar with the system, it uses a dice pool, roll and keep, roll over mechanic, where each die is sourced from a trait on your character sheet. If any of the dice in the pool result in a 1, it's called a hitch, and is not included in the total. Instead, the GM can choose to use buy your hitch with a plot point to give you a complication, which is a hindrance that works against you in future rolls. In addition, sometimes you can spend a plot point and/or another die to create an asset, which can aid you in future rolls.
Anyway, I'm having trouble settling on setting-appropriate words to replace the default game terminology for these items, so I thought I would request some feedback. For a little context, the basic premise of the game is that your character is a godschild, basically a demigod, descended from a deity (lineage) and sent to a primordial world to create landscapes, life, culture, and lore that will somehow benefit their lineage. So these terms would basically be representative of interactions between the lineage and the godschild.
Here's what my brainstorming has yielded so far:
- Plot Point: Grace, Mercy, Indulgence, Faith, Piety
- Hitch: Sacrifice, Offering, Fault, Transgression
- Complication: Penance, Atonement
- Asset: Favor, Gift, Boon, Reward
- Effect Die: This might not require a different term, although “effect die,” or even just “effect,” seem a little immersion-breaking to me.
Edited to add a little additional context for the game. It is designed to create locations, species, cultures, legends, icons, and other lore to feed into a high fantasy setting. Every location/item/etc that you create will have a die rating which it carries with it into the fantasy setting, where it can be used in gameplay. Additionally, the characters of this world-building game are meant to be somewhat short-lived -- there is a Heroic-Tragic "Destiny" spectrum you are constantly playing on, and when you pop off either end of the spectrum, your character is done/retired. You have agency over which direction your character is heading during gameplay, as well as over your character's final destiny once you go off the spectrum. The destiny is basically how the lore of the fantasy world reflects your character's life, deeds, and final fate.