An rambling explanation of Heritage (Patreon)

Heritage pops up almost immediately in the early chapters of Butcher of Gadobhra, and there are choices characters have made about it that influence them.

But what is it?

Normally, heritage would be something you're born with, passed down from parents, grandparents, and ancestors. It's already set, and you can't go backward and choose better ancestors.

In GENESIS, it's a little different. Players can discover their heritage that was hidden from them, even choose between them. But it isn't open to normal characters without some work. Quests might be involved or spending CSP, or other odd occurrences.

Imagine someone finds a magic sword that has special abilities when wielded by a scion of Clan MacTavish. "You have found the Clan Sword of Clan MacTavish. Only a true son of the clan can wield its full might. Bath in the cold water of the well at the Inn at the crossroads to discover your heritage." Maybe you take a cold bath, lock in one of your ancestors, and gain a powerful weapon. Or you sell it back to the clan and keep open your options.

Each step you take in deciding your heritage opens some doors and closes a lot more.

But what about the Contract Workers? Why do so many of them seem to develop a heritage? The answer there is one of the main underlying things that Wally hinted at to the corporations early on: The game has rules, and he's not going to screw the players just because the corporations want them to have no skills.

From Chapter 8: "Sure, we can do that. But I can't change how the game works. They will still have to work within the system. Why don't you shoot over what your guys in the gametech division have, and I'll look at it and bring it along tomorrow? I'll find a way to give you what you want, but still not break any of the rules of the game."

ACME wants their workers to give up something, and Wally made that happen. But that means the system will want to give them something else to balance things. Cheaper Core skills and more stamina is part of that. So is heritage.

Contract Workers are very prone to having the start of their heritage from day 1. This might be from many things including real-world hobbies, and preferences of what type of character you like to play in earlier games. From there things progress as they make choices in the games, finish quests, or create stories of their own.

Rolly linked his heritage to Squirmie early on, and in a similar way, Squirmie gained part of Rolly's heritage.

Ben made the choice to join the Franklin family, which is now a huge chunk of his heritage set in stone. That gets explored at some point.

Suzette, I didn't know about at first. She likes being pretty, part of how she deals with the PTSD of what she went through in the real world. Picking up more CHR pushed her heritage that way. Makken called her 'an outsider', a dwarven term for someone who looks human but that has heritage from another realm. Pointed ears might mean you are half-elven. But it could also be demonic, vampiric, werewolf...everyone gets pointy ears. As the story went on, her heritage pointed more toward the Fae.

Ozzy has some choices to make soon. Heritage is one of them.

Overy in Tunnel Rat, Milo has less choices about heritage. Half of his was automatically ratkin. Another huge decision is his relationship with the ancient beasts. He's already chosen most of his. Maybe.