Protective Circle is a loyal workhorse of playtesting for Mysteries of the Yokai. It embodies the Protective Magic Ability list. It has a set of mechanics that can be used as anything from an actual magical defensive circle, to a series of wards and charms, to the effects of a brilliant tactician on the battlefield. It even combines multiple mechanics that need to be tested into one ability without having them step on each other.

Protective Circle lets a player increase the defensive abilities of themselves or even the entire party. It provides bonuses to Checks the affected allies make that are defensive in nature, including actual Defend actions. It also includes Armor, which reduces the damage a character takes even if they fail to defend. This bonus applies to a specific area; everything within the circle itself. It takes time and energy to create the circle, represented by the very high Focus Point cost, the Ki Cost, and the Ki Maintain cost.

To set up the ability in play, Protective Circle (‘PC’) costs 10 Focus Points, and has the [Charge] tag (a name we’re using for internal testing, likely to change to something more evocative of the setting later). The Charge mechanic works by letting players take Full actions to spend as many Focus Points as they want; when the FP cost has been fully paid, the Ability activates. Standard characters start with a Focus Refresh stat of ‘3’, and most normal combats start a player at 3 times their Refresh stat, so players won’t be able to activate the circle instantly without some additional abilities. This represents the time it takes to create a circle, whether it’s drawing an actual circle on the ground, purifying a shrine, or directing palace guards how best to arrange themselves to protect the Emperor. Want to get going sooner? You could take the ability ‘Diligent Focus’ from the Combat Prowess Abilities to increase your Refresh, or you could take the ‘Focus’ special action at the start of the battle, both of which would give you enough Focus Points to activate the circle. You might still want to wait though, even if you can activate it right away. If you spend all your Focus Points too soon, the enemy will be able to attack you, and without any FP left to Defend, even the Circle might not be enough to fully keep you safe. Protective Circle is a fun ability, because it gives you a lot of meaningful decisions to make early in the battle. Obviously, the sooner you activate it, the more times its bonuses will apply, increasing its value. On the other hand, if you over-exert yourself, the enemy could focus on your character; ignoring the others who are benefiting from the circle in order to stack damage against the target who cannot defend anymore. In Mysteries of the Yokai, if you can’t or choose not to Defend, you roll only 3D6 with no modifiers (including the circle!), which makes it very likely that any attacker will hit you.

The second mechanic used by PC is ‘Maintain’. Ki Abilities with Maintain require you to pay the listed Maintain cost in Ki at the start of each Round of combat (not including Bonus Rounds). Essentially, you will always have that much Ki in your Pool, limiting how many other Ki abilities you can safely use. PC has a relatively low Maintain cost of 2. Since characters automatically release D6 points of Ki at the end of a Round if they have not exceeded their Ki Limit, even if you roll slightly less than average, you should be fine over the long term battle. But since this cost eats up most of the average roll (3.5) of your free Ki Release, if you begin using other Ki Abilities, you have less cushion.

Early in the post, I made a couple suggestions for alternate ways to define a Protective Circle. Mysteries of the Yokai encourages players to create their own abilities by taking the mechanics of existing ones and ‘re-skinning’ them. As noted, if you were a tactician, you could define your PC as a ‘defensive battle plan’, the bonuses modeling your directions or leadership. In a combat where the GM is representing an interrogation, Protective Circle could be the preparation and earlier investigation of a character; each time the opponent tried to lie or evade the truth (attack actions), the research you bring to the case would make it easier to prove them wrong (bonus to Defend actions) or soften the effects of misdirection ploys (armor).