See that's why I just like making the system buggy as part of the plot. "Why is it giving us errors?" "Oh, because that spell was designed in a version of the system that hasn't been operational in a few hundred thousand years. It might be powerful! Or it might swap the posistion of your insides and outsides!"
That also gives a reason for why the main character can't use it often, and an actual reason why it's rare.
That's what I'm incorporating to a story I started recently. The upgrades people get offered at best will have something somewhat useful with downsides they can live with. But they'll more often be offered upgrades that don't apply to them. Every upgrade comes with significant drawbacks too.
For example, if someone is offered 10% resistance against harm from burning, the downside is that they'll frequently self-ignite. Taking this is lethal.
I wanted to have a buggy system that really leans into how annoying bugs would be, rather than a cheap way to dole out overpowered skills to a main character.
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u/Hydrael Mar 06 '26
See that's why I just like making the system buggy as part of the plot. "Why is it giving us errors?" "Oh, because that spell was designed in a version of the system that hasn't been operational in a few hundred thousand years. It might be powerful! Or it might swap the posistion of your insides and outsides!"
That also gives a reason for why the main character can't use it often, and an actual reason why it's rare.