Hana Academy: Relationships

In the introduction to Hana Academy, relationships were discussed as an important part of the game. They represent one of the foundations of the game and an element which underpins many of the core mechanics.

Relationships have a special place in Hana Academy. They are one of the primary sources players draw their power, but also one of their greatest weaknesses. Instead of a pool of skill points, characters start with a pool of relationship points. These are spent on other characters (PCs and NPCs) to define how important the relationship is to the PC. Importance doesn't mean friend; rivals are just as important.

Each of these relationships has a skill associated with it based on what drives the relationship. A relationship with a teammate could be associated with Athletics, while a crush who is in your history class could be Academics. Naturally, the skill gets the rating of the relationship: the more important the relationship, the more the character is driven to excel at the skill. You can only assign each skill once.

The dark side to any relationship is how it can be used against you. Those who are closest to know the easiest ways to hurt us. Our most bitter rivals have a certain knack for always getting the best of us. If they didn't, the rivalry certainly wouldn't be so bitter. Whenever the character you have a relationship with acts against you, they gain a bonus equal to your relationship. This doesn't have to be related to the skill, simply any action at all. This is a one-way street - their importance to you is already represented by the skill itself.

There is some good news to this as well. Those closest to you know how best to help you: they gain it as a bonus when working directly to help you. This typically manifests through creating advantages for you to use. Friends also serve another important purpose: they are the best instruments for revenge.

Since your rivals gain an inherent bonus against you, it is always best to recruit friends. Since your enemies don't necessarily have the same importance to your friends, they can provide significant assistance as you plan the downfall of your continual tormentor. It's always good to have friends. Especially the kind who will help you hide bodies.

As you grow and change, your relationship values wax and wane. The people who were once so important to you drift away, only to be replaced by others. Your best friend may have once been your partner in crime, but now you are more interested in flower arranging together. People change and so will your relationships.

Relationships are found in other pieces of the game as well, such as Aspects, but those will be topics for another entry.

Hana Academy: Introduction

Welcome to Hana Academy, a Fate-based game about relationships and growing up in a school with mystery, magic, and flowers.

As one of the Gifted, you stand apart from the rest of their classmates as special. As a symbol of this status, all gifted bear a garland. These garlands hold many secrets for those able to decipher the language of flowers. The Gifted are able to travel to strange, beautiful, and often dangerous vistas through arbors - gates between our world and the garden.

The Garden is how the Gifted refer to places beyond our world. Curiosity is a powerful motivator and there is nothing quite like the Garden anywhere else. Sensations are more intense and there is the promise of adventure beyond every corner. Some of the Gifted try to avoid these familiar yet alien places, but are drawn to them by some machination - normally of their friends!

Gifts make the impossible a reality, but they don't seem to actually solve any of the most important problems: your childhood friend who is growing away from you, the bully who keeps picking on you, and why won't Alex pay attention to you? Nor do they make the looming questions of finding yourself any easier to answer. They do manage to make conflict more intense and the stakes always seem higher higher. A scuffle on the lacrosse field takes on new proportions when one of them can conjure flames and the other summons a sword from a plane of chaos.

The good news is you have your club to help you with the real problems. No matter what, you know they will be there for you. Through these bonds of friendship the gifted learn themselves and one another. You help each other grow into these new powers, sharing in victories, and easing failures.

As much as your relationships can cause you problems, they are what you derive your sense of self from. They are a very real part in determining what you are good at; either the relationship defines the skill, or the skill defines the relationship. As you grow and change, so will your interests and relationships. 

Hana Academy is a place to grow and learn. You will blossom into who you are meant to be and give you everything you need. Even if it doesn't seem so at the time.