Monday, September 7, 2009

Resolution mechanic for untitled zombie 9/11 game

As previously discussed, the games mechanics center around the imposing or removing conditions from other players. what are conditions? Conditions are traits, traits are conditions, but conditions are named to emphasize their temporary and transitive nature. If something has mechanical force, it gets turned into a condition.

As previously discussed, the three mechanically significant acts in the game are "impose a condition", "remove a condition" and "gather resources". The goal in naming and designing the mechanically significant acts the way I have is to insure that the games resolution mechanic is both goal resolution rather than task resolution, and that the game has it's mechanics firmly grounded in the fiction. Here is a procedure list for imposing a condition.

1) Player declares an action they perform and a condition they are trying to impose. "I'm imposing 'injured' to Detective Jones by braining him with the baseball bat' is okay, but a little formal, "I'm braining him with a bat" says the same thing but is much preffered.

2) Opposing player declares which actions, if any, will be taken to stop the first player. "I duck" for example.

3) Add up the number of supporting traits and conditions minus the number of opposing traits and conditions. If the number is positive, roll 3d6 plus a number of d6 equal to the difference and take the highest three. If the number is negative, do the same but take the lowest three dice.

4) consult the as yet not manufactured chart.
3-6 risky failure. Not only don't you succeed, and the GM imposes a condition on you.
7-10 simple failure. you don't succeed.
11-13 problematic success. You succeed, but the GM imposes a condition on you.
14-17 success. You succeed.
18 Fortunate success. You succeed and can impose another condition on the victim.

No comments:

Post a Comment