The Child Blade: An RPG Archetype
How a single image became a system-agnostic character template
The Hook
It started with an image that wouldn't leave me alone.
Scrolling through the "Dungeons & AI" Facebook group, I encountered a stark black-and-white ink wash: a small figure with a sword facing down a massive, dripping demon under a dark moon. The composition was striking enough, but something about the dynamic between these two figures felt pregnant with narrative possibility. The child wasn't cowering or fleeing—they stood resolute, blade raised, as if this confrontation was inevitable.
The image sat in my mind for days, accumulating questions. Who was this child? What brought them to this moment? Most intriguingly: what if this wasn't a traditional hero's journey at all?
The Conversation Begins
Instead of immediately diving into mechanics or stat blocks, I decided to explore the concept conversationally with Claude. This approach—using an LLM as a creative partner rather than just a tool—has become my preferred method for developing complex ideas. The back-and-forth allows concepts to breathe and evolve organically.
"What if," I proposed, "instead of the girl facing off with the demon, it were her benefactor, Akuma-sensei?"
That single question shifted everything. Suddenly we weren't looking at a confrontation between good and evil, but something far more complex: a student and teacher, a weapon and its forger, a moment of recognition rather than battle.
From there, the conversation spiraled into rich territory: the mythology of revenge-seeking orphans, the Sith as institutionalized corruption, the moment when a child develops a conscience and realizes they're replaceable in their mentor's grand design.
Finding the Pattern
What emerged from our discussion wasn't a specific character or setting, but an archetype—what we came to call the "child-blade." Someone forged by trauma into an instrument of violence, carrying both innocence and cutting edge, trapped on what we described as "an expressway to damnation" with full knowledge of where it leads.
The archetype's power came from its moral complexity. These aren't traditional heroes or villains, but figures caught between human emotion and weaponized purpose. They know exactly what they're becoming and either don't care, are mortally afraid, are scheming to escape, or are stepping on the gas toward their own destruction.
We realized this concept had legs across multiple genres and systems. A child-blade could be:
- A demon's protégé in dark fantasy
- A corporate test subject in cyberpunk
- A cult survivor in modern horror
- A lab-grown supersoldier in science fiction
System Agnostic by Design
Rather than building yet another complete RPG system, we decided to create something more useful: a portable archetype that could slot into existing games. This decision came from recognizing that the RPG landscape is already rich with excellent systems—what was missing wasn't another set of mechanics, but a compelling character concept that could enhance existing frameworks.
We developed implementations for three very different systems:
Cairn gave us space for nuanced psychological exploration, with mechanics that reinforced the character's growing corruption while maintaining agency.
MÖRK BORG stripped away subtlety for pure visceral impact, emphasizing body horror and inevitable doom in that system's signature apocalyptic style.
Death in Space provided the corporate dystopian framework where child-blades become products of institutional dehumanization rather than individual corruption.
Each implementation revealed different facets of the same core concept, proving the archetype's versatility.
The Template Approach
What we ended up with wasn't a game, but something potentially more valuable: a reusable creative template. The philosophical essay established the archetype's emotional and narrative foundations. The system implementations demonstrated how those foundations could be expressed through different mechanical frameworks. The whole package became a toolkit for GMs and designers rather than a fixed product.
This template approach reflects a broader trend in indie RPG design toward modularity and interoperability. Instead of demanding players learn entirely new systems, we're creating content that enhances the games they already love.
AI as Creative Partner
Throughout this process, the AI wasn't generating content so much as serving as an ideal creative partner—one who could engage with complex ideas, challenge assumptions, and help develop concepts without ego or creative ownership issues. The conversation flowed naturally between human intuition and artificial analysis, with each participant building on the other's contributions.
The AI helped me recognize patterns I might have missed (like connecting the child-blade to existing mythologies) and pushed concepts further than I might have taken them alone (the "cosmic horror meets labor organizing" insight about competing demons collecting weaponized humans).
From Image to Implementation
The journey from that initial haunting image to a complete, publishable archetype took only a few hours of conversation, but resulted in something with genuine depth and utility. The image provided the emotional spark, the conversation developed the concept, and the systematic implementation across multiple frameworks proved its versatility.
Most importantly, the process demonstrated how modern creative tools—AI art generation, conversational AI, and accessible publishing platforms—can democratize complex creative work. A single person with an idea and access to these tools can develop professional-quality content without needing a full development team.
Lessons Learned
Start with emotion, not mechanics. The philosophical foundation proved far more important than any individual system implementation.
Embrace conversation as a design tool. The back-and-forth development process generated ideas neither human nor AI would have reached alone.
Design for portability. Creating system-agnostic content serves more communities than building another complete game.
Let concepts breathe. The child-blade archetype kept revealing new facets throughout our discussion because we didn't rush to lock down a final version.
Respect existing systems. Rather than trying to replace beloved games, we created content that enhances them.
The Final Product
What began as a single striking image became a complete archetype exploration: philosophical essay, multiple system implementations, and proper attribution for community release. The child-blade now exists as a template that can be adapted to countless settings and systems, carrying its core themes of corruption, agency, and moral complexity wherever it goes.
The image that started this journey still resonates, but now it's accompanied by a rich framework for understanding and implementing the ideas it sparked. Sometimes the most powerful creative work begins not with a grand design, but with a single compelling moment that demands exploration.
And sometimes the best way to explore that moment is simply to start talking about it with someone—or something—willing to follow the conversation wherever it leads.
The Child-Blade archetype and implementations are available as a free PDF on itch.io, licensed under Creative Commons for community use and adaptation.