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.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Creating and removing conditions, and other game mechanics
It's really late. I've just written this. I'm waaay past my bedtime but inspiration couldn't wait.
Also, I think these are the slickest mechanics I've ever designed.
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How to play the game:
This game has three players: the Infected, the Investigator, and the Game Master. The Infected and the Investigator are responsible for playing their characters in traditional actor stance. The game master provides complications and adversity for the players, as well as, if appropriate, revealing in play those secrets which the powerful would to anything to keep. The game master is the ultimate judge of what fictional acts mean mechanically. This game gives the game master little power over the games direction, but a lot of mechanical responsibility over making the game fair. The game master decides who gets the spotlight and when.
Character creation: I'm not sure yet what qualities characters have to make them competent and how they are represented mechanically, but I suspect that characters have some core competencies which are permanent and some transient resources which can be gained, lost and spent. Secret knowledge and authority will be resources. Guns will be resources. Being alert, being healthy, and being calm will be resources. Maybe resources will be cards that the GM can hand out to the players. Or sticky notes that the players attach to their sheets. The investigator always starts with the condition “I'm chasing the infected” and “I don't know where the infected is (local)”. The infected always starts with the condition “I'm infected with fury (stage 1)” and “I'm the subject of a manhunt”
Scene framing: The first scene is always the infected escaping from quarantine. The second scene is always the investigator at the scene of the escape. Scenes pass from player to player as appropriate. The game master is the person with the spotlight, shining it on characters.
What are conditions?
Conditions are the site of fictional/mechanical intersection in the game. Depending, they can make some things happen automatically, forbid other things from happening, allow some thing to happen which would be otherwise impossible, or provide mechanical bonuses in the resolution system.
For example, the condition "I am an investigator" makes the investigator more competent at doing stuff policemen in action movies do, like running after suspects and shooting guns. It also makes some things like arresting people or calling for a manhunt possible. It means you can arrest people, which happens automatically as long as they can't get away from you.
The three mechanical acts:
The three things the infected and the investigator can do that have mechanical effect are:
Give a condition to another player
Remove a condition from a player
Gather resources
To give a condition
Player names the condition they are giving and states what they are doing to create the obstacle. For example “I'm going to loose the investigator by sneaking into the train yard and hopping a freight train.”
Any other player can provide resistance to the condition, but it must be appropriate to the fiction. For example, to respond to the infected players attempt to loose the investigator, it would be appropriate for the Investigator to resist with “there is a police detail at the train yard expecting this avenue of escape” but not “I'm waiting at the train yard for the infected” because the Investigator doesn't know where the infected is.
Then there is some yet to be determined resolution mechanic. The outcomes can be: Condition created, condition created with complication, condition not created, condition not created with complication. The game master is responsible for deciding the nature of the complication, if any occurs. Complications take the form of conditions. The complications must be textually appropriate and proportional.
Following a condition test, the GM can keep the spotlight on the active character or move it to the other character. Always write conditions down as post it notes and give them to the player if they last more than one scene.
To remove a condition
It works the same way as creating one, but in reverse.
Sometimes, with the right resources it makes no sense to involve a roll to remove a condition, it should happen automatically. Sometimes, without the right resources, it doesn't make sense to allow a roll to remove a condition.
To gather a resource
Name the resource you are gathering and how you are doing it. Example “I'm going to the diner to eat, and then I'm going to the hotel to sleep” gather the resources food and sleep, which can be used to remove the I'm hungry and I'm exhausted conditions.
Any time a player attempts to gather a resource, the game master should:
End the players scene
Create a condition for the player that needs to be removed before the resource can be gathered, like “The hotel lobby is filled with cops who are looking for you.”
Create a condition for the player after the resource has been gathered, like “As soon as you open the safe containing the evidence, an alarm sounds”
Create a condition that must be accepted if you accept the resource, or
Do nothing, and let the game continue.
In any case, the resource should be written down on a post it and given to the player.
Also, I think these are the slickest mechanics I've ever designed.
----
How to play the game:
This game has three players: the Infected, the Investigator, and the Game Master. The Infected and the Investigator are responsible for playing their characters in traditional actor stance. The game master provides complications and adversity for the players, as well as, if appropriate, revealing in play those secrets which the powerful would to anything to keep. The game master is the ultimate judge of what fictional acts mean mechanically. This game gives the game master little power over the games direction, but a lot of mechanical responsibility over making the game fair. The game master decides who gets the spotlight and when.
Character creation: I'm not sure yet what qualities characters have to make them competent and how they are represented mechanically, but I suspect that characters have some core competencies which are permanent and some transient resources which can be gained, lost and spent. Secret knowledge and authority will be resources. Guns will be resources. Being alert, being healthy, and being calm will be resources. Maybe resources will be cards that the GM can hand out to the players. Or sticky notes that the players attach to their sheets. The investigator always starts with the condition “I'm chasing the infected” and “I don't know where the infected is (local)”. The infected always starts with the condition “I'm infected with fury (stage 1)” and “I'm the subject of a manhunt”
Scene framing: The first scene is always the infected escaping from quarantine. The second scene is always the investigator at the scene of the escape. Scenes pass from player to player as appropriate. The game master is the person with the spotlight, shining it on characters.
What are conditions?
Conditions are the site of fictional/mechanical intersection in the game. Depending, they can make some things happen automatically, forbid other things from happening, allow some thing to happen which would be otherwise impossible, or provide mechanical bonuses in the resolution system.
For example, the condition "I am an investigator" makes the investigator more competent at doing stuff policemen in action movies do, like running after suspects and shooting guns. It also makes some things like arresting people or calling for a manhunt possible. It means you can arrest people, which happens automatically as long as they can't get away from you.
The three mechanical acts:
The three things the infected and the investigator can do that have mechanical effect are:
Give a condition to another player
Remove a condition from a player
Gather resources
To give a condition
Player names the condition they are giving and states what they are doing to create the obstacle. For example “I'm going to loose the investigator by sneaking into the train yard and hopping a freight train.”
Any other player can provide resistance to the condition, but it must be appropriate to the fiction. For example, to respond to the infected players attempt to loose the investigator, it would be appropriate for the Investigator to resist with “there is a police detail at the train yard expecting this avenue of escape” but not “I'm waiting at the train yard for the infected” because the Investigator doesn't know where the infected is.
Then there is some yet to be determined resolution mechanic. The outcomes can be: Condition created, condition created with complication, condition not created, condition not created with complication. The game master is responsible for deciding the nature of the complication, if any occurs. Complications take the form of conditions. The complications must be textually appropriate and proportional.
Following a condition test, the GM can keep the spotlight on the active character or move it to the other character. Always write conditions down as post it notes and give them to the player if they last more than one scene.
To remove a condition
It works the same way as creating one, but in reverse.
Sometimes, with the right resources it makes no sense to involve a roll to remove a condition, it should happen automatically. Sometimes, without the right resources, it doesn't make sense to allow a roll to remove a condition.
To gather a resource
Name the resource you are gathering and how you are doing it. Example “I'm going to the diner to eat, and then I'm going to the hotel to sleep” gather the resources food and sleep, which can be used to remove the I'm hungry and I'm exhausted conditions.
Any time a player attempts to gather a resource, the game master should:
End the players scene
Create a condition for the player that needs to be removed before the resource can be gathered, like “The hotel lobby is filled with cops who are looking for you.”
Create a condition for the player after the resource has been gathered, like “As soon as you open the safe containing the evidence, an alarm sounds”
Create a condition that must be accepted if you accept the resource, or
Do nothing, and let the game continue.
In any case, the resource should be written down on a post it and given to the player.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
setting and situation revealed for untitled zombie political thriller
This is a short description of the setting and situation for my game. I have a lot of ideas about mechanics, in particular about tools for structuring scene framing and creating fallout, which are in pretty solid shape. I'm still kicking around ideas about conflict resolution, character effectiveness economies, metaplot management (yea, this game has a freaking metaplot! OLD SKOOL REPRESENT!) Secret keeping and secret revealing, and other stuff.
Also, I've got custody of my darling daughter from now till Monday, so posting until Monday night will be slow to nonexistent.
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Situation: A person infected with Fury, a highly contagious strain of rabies which was spread throughout America in the aftermath of 9/11 (it takes the place of the anthrax mailings in actual history), escapes from a federal quarantine camp. An FBI agent, now assigned to the office of homeland securities new special situations task force, hunts down the escapee. But the infected in on the trail of secrets that could rock the new American security state to its foundations. Secrets men would do anything to keep.
Setting: The game takes place in late 2001, around Thanksgiving to Christmas. In late September 2001, mail bombs using a heretofore unknown and extremely contagious strain of rabies as a biological warfare agent detonated in the offices of senate leader Tom Dachle, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, as well as a high school in East Orange, New Jersey, a corporate office in suburban Chicago and a hospital in LA. The ensuing outbreaks of what the media came to call “Fury” threatened to overwhelm the nation until on October 1st, President Bush declared limited martial law in areas of know infection and began the process of quarantine. In the following month and a half, the nation has stood in shock, fists clenched, half ready to kill, half ready collapse in despair.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Sorensen big three
1) What is your game about? The game is first and foremost about the conflict between playing your role and looking beyond it to wider responsibilities. The infected wants to avoid the horrors of quarantine. The investigator want to catch his man. But both of them stumble on pieces of a puzzle that they can choose to investigate or ignore.
This game is also about presenting a big thick metaplot without running into the problems which traditionally are associated with metaplot, ie PC deprotagonism.
And on a much lesser note, it's about re creating elements of the fugitive movie with harrison ford, and re creating American paranoid pop culture more generally, like the Manchurian Canidate or Seven Days in May.
2) How does it go about it? There are mechanical systems that push players towards fulfilling their role, and others that reward players for uncovering the plot. The role of the GM is entirely reactive, ie they cannot push the players toward the metaplot or away from it without the use of very specific tools.
3) What does it reward / encourage. It rewards you for moving out of your role but punishes it for you as well.
I'll probably post another one of these after the rough draft is finsihed. Tomorrow: Work on the rough draft, maybe blog about some mechanical aspects of the game.
This game is also about presenting a big thick metaplot without running into the problems which traditionally are associated with metaplot, ie PC deprotagonism.
And on a much lesser note, it's about re creating elements of the fugitive movie with harrison ford, and re creating American paranoid pop culture more generally, like the Manchurian Canidate or Seven Days in May.
2) How does it go about it? There are mechanical systems that push players towards fulfilling their role, and others that reward players for uncovering the plot. The role of the GM is entirely reactive, ie they cannot push the players toward the metaplot or away from it without the use of very specific tools.
3) What does it reward / encourage. It rewards you for moving out of your role but punishes it for you as well.
I'll probably post another one of these after the rough draft is finsihed. Tomorrow: Work on the rough draft, maybe blog about some mechanical aspects of the game.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A note on Zombie symbolism
The reason that the Romero style zombie became the predominant pop cultural symbol in the years after 9/11 is that the zombie represents the failure of the state to protect us. One day you are going to work, minding your own business, the next thing you know people are running down fifth avenue screaming and all the shops are closed and why did no one stop it is this not what we pay policemen and the army for and who by God will protect me now?
The greatest zombie movie of the post 9/11 era was 28 days later because it depicted both the fear of the state of nature but also the danger of authority which has become no better than the beast it is supposed to protect us from. When my kid asks me what this time in history was like I can do no better than show her that film and say it was like that, sweetie. It was just like that.
I think one can say the same thing about the Regan years and Neuomancer, or the Nixon years and Parallax view.
The greatest zombie movie of the post 9/11 era was 28 days later because it depicted both the fear of the state of nature but also the danger of authority which has become no better than the beast it is supposed to protect us from. When my kid asks me what this time in history was like I can do no better than show her that film and say it was like that, sweetie. It was just like that.
I think one can say the same thing about the Regan years and Neuomancer, or the Nixon years and Parallax view.
Day one.
Things I did today for game chef:
1) Finalized the concept. The game will be about an FBI agent pursuing a person infected with Zombieism pursuing a conspiracy/cover up in the days following 9/11/01. Kind of Planet Terror meets the Fugitive.
2) There will be three highly defined character roles in the game: The infected, the investigator, and the game master. The investigator chases the infected. The infected runs away from the investigator. Both try to uncover the mystery of the conspiracy/ cover up. Both players run into trouble, which can be caused by the other player or brought up by the GM. Trouble can slow the player down, cause zombie outbreaks, cause the agents superiors to interfere with the investigation.
3) This will not be a board game, but there may be a game board.
For tomorrow- parts one and two of the big three.
1) Finalized the concept. The game will be about an FBI agent pursuing a person infected with Zombieism pursuing a conspiracy/cover up in the days following 9/11/01. Kind of Planet Terror meets the Fugitive.
2) There will be three highly defined character roles in the game: The infected, the investigator, and the game master. The investigator chases the infected. The infected runs away from the investigator. Both try to uncover the mystery of the conspiracy/ cover up. Both players run into trouble, which can be caused by the other player or brought up by the GM. Trouble can slow the player down, cause zombie outbreaks, cause the agents superiors to interfere with the investigation.
3) This will not be a board game, but there may be a game board.
For tomorrow- parts one and two of the big three.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Inagural post
This is the inaugural post for my 2009 game chef blog. My plan is to have an alpha draft completed in two weeks, using the theme, intrigue, and the ingredients divider and star. My current plan should also achieve the Cerebus award, for three players, the Zombie award, for having a zombie protagonist, and the Sorenson-Nixon award, for being set in 2001.
2001 is a particularly interesting time to set a role playing game. And the zombie, in many ways, the ideal pop cultural symbol for that Annus horribilis .
2001 is a particularly interesting time to set a role playing game. And the zombie, in many ways, the ideal pop cultural symbol for that Annus horribilis .
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