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8. Prism Workshop

This section is not a list of recommended rules or a catalogue of official Prisms.

It is a game design workshop.

The proposals below are deliberately experimental. Their purpose is to explore what Regard makes it possible to think about when we take seriously the idea that a relationship to the world can transform resolution itself.

The right way to use this workshop is therefore not:

Which Prism should I copy?

but:

What does this example teach me about the design space?

Transforming the relationship to prediction and probability​

Prophecy — Commitment​

Before rolling, the player announces the exact number of Successes they expect to obtain.

Getting the prediction exactly right produces an exceptional result; missing it turns the test into a failure or strong consequence depending on the game.

The player may be encouraged to voluntarily reduce the number of Bets they commit in order to make their own prophecy more credible.

The game thus turns supposed knowledge of the future into present behavior.

Possible diegetic expressions: oracle, prescience, a calculator able to commit to a prediction.

Balance — Duality​

The player divides their Bets into two distinct sets.

The quality of the result depends less on the raw total than on the proximity between the two sets: balance becomes mechanically desirable.

Possible diegetic expressions: philosophy of the mean, complementary elemental forces, Yin-Yang discipline, balance between two natures of the character.

Transforming the relationship to adversity​

Symbiosis — Mimicry​

A player's die becomes a Success only if it shows exactly the same value as a die in the opposing roll.

You therefore do not win by simply producing more independent successes.

You win by finding a form of correspondence with what you are facing.

Possible diegetic expressions: telepathy, absolute diplomacy, assimilation, neural hacking, magic based on attunement or copying.

Parasite — Corruption​

Some low results allow the player to take, move, or exchange elements of the opposing roll.

The character's strength then literally comes from what they steal from the other side.

Possible diegetic expressions: necromancy, corruption, curse, parasitic organism.

Transforming the nature of the medium​

Weaver — Cards​

Each Bet lets the player draw a card instead of rolling a die.

Combinations — pairs, runs, suits, or colors — produce Successes or additional information.

The medium itself becomes part of the perspective.

Ascension — variable dice​

Bets can justify dice of different sizes.

An important result may depend not only on high values but on the ability to make a progression appear across several die sizes.

The character is no longer merely trying to "roll high": they are trying to produce a form of transcendence.

Transforming the relationship to solitude​

Isolation — Singularity​

The presence of allies reduces the character's power or disturbs the way they act.

One version might remove a die or neutralize a Success for each directly involved ally.

Conversely, when the character acts entirely alone, some failed results could be rerolled or transformed.

Possible diegetic expressions: cursed berserker, assassin whose magic requires solitude, keeper of a secret who loses power in the presence of a witness.

This kind of Prism can shape the very composition of the scenes the player prefers to seek out.

Transforming the relationship to the group​

Synergy — Gestalt​

Success cannot be entirely individual.

In a simple version, a Success exists only when one of the character's dice finds exactly the same value in an ally's roll.

In another, every ally present lets the character turn one category of failure into a Success or opens an additional pattern.

Possible diegetic expressions: collective consciousness, telepathic twins, networked artificial intelligences, military phalanx, magical choir.

Transforming collaboration into toxic dependence​

Parasitic Prisms — Dependence​

Collaboration exists, but it is asymmetric: one character benefits by taking something away from the others.

They may gain extra Successes by taking dice from allies' rolls, or protect their own Defeat by destroying a nearby ally's Success.

Possible diegetic expressions: psychic vampire, necromancer, toxic leader, noble whose status protects them at the expense of their servants.

Here, the Prism does not merely simulate an unpleasant personality.

It makes the group mechanically feel the toxic relational structure the character imposes on it.

What the Workshop is trying to show​

These prototypes do not claim to be balanced against one another or even compatible within the same game.

They explore several directions:

  • transforming probability;
  • transforming what the player looks for in a roll;
  • transforming the relationship to adversity;
  • transforming the relationship to allies;
  • transforming the desired composition of a scene;
  • transforming the medium;
  • transforming the form of the result itself;
  • producing, when it serves the game, a standalone result without opposing Bets.

The Workshop does not define Regard's limits. It helps search for them.