Psyche: CRC week 7, update 3

Challenge: Make and rpg system with consequences.

Some weeks I feel like I'm circling a good idea in a dark room. I can kind of see the outline, and I can feel around on it a bit, but I just can't seem to reproduce it. The thing I end with resembles a good idea, much the same way that a snake resembles an elephant, but isn't quite the good idea I wanted. This was just such a week.

I feel like this about my rpg designs in general. Every rpg I make looks a bit like the rpg I want to make, but just isn't quite right. There are common elements that keep recurring over and over again. A few things carried over from Yggdrasil (namely the tension ratcheting 1s and the you say it, you do it mentality), from my not-so-secret rpg in development code named Dragonland (my code names are infamously bad), and from some other even more secret games. I hope that sometime soon I can bring it all together and make what I want to make. 

Psyche isn't the rpg I want to make, but it turned out pretty well. It can even be layered onto another system to add some challenge and change up your decision making process. Have at and have fun.

Download Psyche

And if you were wondering, the picture is of Psyche and Charon. 

The Cost of Killing: CRC week 7, update 2

Challenge: Make an rpg system with consequences.

I apologize for the picture, but it cracks me up. Deal with it. 

How does it feel to kill someone? When we play games (especially fantastical combat heavy games like rpgs) we tend not think about it. It is just something that happens. There is a dude blocking your way, so your first instinct is to stab him. I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO you scream at the top of your lungs while flying through the air, sword in hand. But would a real person do that? Is that how a hero would act? I don't really think so.

Killing someone, even that awful terrible villain, has a cost. You just took a (presumably) human life and that has got to have an affect on you personally. I know it would affect me.

Real soldiers, which are the closest thing we have to warrior/heroes today, are trained to actively not kill people. They only kill people when they really have to. Soldiers that do have to kill lots of people are usually pretty torn up when they come back home. PTSD is a serious thing, and it is even more serious when the thing that caused it was killing other people.

Your psycology overall would be negatively effected every time you killed someone in real life. Emotional torment, braking of your personality, and even just straight mental instability would all occur. You would not be able to keep it together. In most games though, you can kill dozens of guys without any real consequences.

That is what this weeks game is going to be all about: consequences. For every action that you take, their will be a consequence. You really want to kill that guy? Sure, but it will cost you. A lot. Maybe you try and talk to him instead. Just a thought.

In the game, you will be a typical hero. It is just a given that you are at the top of your physical game, no matter what setting your game is in. You can run all day without breaking a sweat. An arrow to the gut is just a glancing blow. Stepping on a landmine is just a flesh wound. Your are also just smarter than everyone around you. You recite the collected works of Shakespeare in your sleep. Differential equations are no big deal. You are clearly a badass.

So that means no rolling for success. If you want to do something, you just do it. It will cost you some of your points, which at the moment are called Will Power, but you can totally do it.

There will however be rolling to determine the psychological impact that your actions will have on your character. If you are able to take an action without a serious effect on your psych, you will have the opportunity to wager more WP to take more actions in a chain. If you continue to suffer only little drawbacks, you will get psyched up and gain more WP. If the realization of what you have just done hits you, you will be psyched out and loose a bunch of your WP. 

You will need to accumulate those points too. As the game goes on, the stakes are continually escalating. Every action that you take or event that happens will escalate the situation that you are in. You will need to have those built up points to withstand the increasing pressure of the situation.

There is also a bit of character creation, although not much (as I really hate long setup times). Most of your character will be determined by the choices that you make in game. Tomorrow I will play it some and put up the PDF. See you then.

NO FIGHTING!: CRC week 7, update 1

Daniel from Cracked Monocle and I were having a pre-game conversation today about rpg combat systems. The conversation started off about having a more general conflict resolution system that didn't encourage combat. Eventually that turned to consequences, specifically emotional consequences for your actions and what that would look like systematically.

So I decided that that should be my challenge this week! I'm going to make an rpg conflict resolution system built around emotional consequences. It will be a lighter Yggdrasil in that it won't have all of the lore. Right now I'm thinking it will be a straight context-less system that you could use for any story telling scenario, but that is of course subject to change. Sometimes I just can't resist injecting a little flavor. 

Guild of Nastiness: CRC week 6, update 4

Challenge: Make a hidden role game.

So we didn't actually get to play the game last night, as we were too busy playing the quote game and Super Munchkin. That was ok, I just figured we would play it today. Alas, today was also Father's Day, so all of the usual suspects were scarce. I had to go round up different people.

Luckily my mustache and demeanor are very convincing and I got 3 complete strangers to play my prototype. They weren't very good at naming plans (as I had to name all of the plans myself (with a little help from Michelle)) but they were excellent sports. Thanks guys! I appreciate it!

The changes I made were relatively minor. You now have the ability to split your vote across multiple plans, further obfuscating your true intentions. There are also now notoriety +X cards that add X to the notoriety of the plan regardless of which 1 is picked. So yeah, pretty minor stuff.

I also apologize for the quality of the card graphics. The GIMP was acting up and its interpolation for rotating sucks. 

Anyway, here is this weeks game:

Guild of Nastiness

Axis of Evil: CRC week 6, update 3

Challenge: Make a hidden role game.

I ended up with 5 different evil aspects for the events and 10+2 roles created from them. Each of the 10 roles is a cross between 2 different aspects and scores x2 for each event that has 1 of those aspects, and x4 if the event has both. 

The 2 additional roles are the Undercover Agent and the Henchman. The Undercover Agent scores x3 for foiled events. The Henchman scores for any event, regardless of success and scores x3 for events that have a total notoriety of <4. 

The game will be 6 rounds long plus a starting phase and a plan execution phase at the end. Each player is assigned a role randomly and dealt 5 cards during the starting phase. During the regular rounds, players will place an event card from their hand face down on the table and then they each draw a card to replace it. The cards will then be shuffled together and revealed. Players will then vote on them. The winning event will become part of the plan.

During the plan execution phase at the end of the game, everyone reveals their identities. The events are then executed in the order that they were played. Each event has a notoriety score written on it. You roll a d6 and add that number to the notoriety on the card to determine the the notoriety of the event. The threshold of failure for an event goes up by 1 every turn, starting at 7. If an event is foiled, then no one (except the Undercover Agent and the Henchman) scores for the event. If it succeeds, everyone scores the notoriety for that event plus any special scoring form roles. The person that played that event also scores 3 additional points (with multipliers applied) for that event. The player with the most points wins.

Tonight we are going to play it with a group. I haven't actually named the events yet. I'm going to let my players name the events as they are played. I thought that that would be cool. I should have a PDF up tomorrow. See you then.