Ripping off Mechanics Part I

One idea generated by my mashing and gnashing of Themes is using dice to create game elements.   I won't lie.  I am ripping this idea off.

Rewriting Basic Play for CN: Cribbage Part I

One of the Game Fu #7 Entries is Leftovers (pdf link that seems to be broken, try to right button click save as).

I give mad props to the writing style and general layout. Here is a bit.

the Basics

Characters are defined primarily by their Natures and Traits.

There are two Natures: Human and Horrific. The more Human you are, the less Horrific you are, and vice-versa. Everybody’s at least a little bit Horrific, but plenty of things are completely in-Human.

There are 18 Traits, so we’re not going to list them all here. Traits represent skills, affinities, professions, interests, and so on. A character might be good at fighting, or scientifically minded, or sneaky, or whatever. When you want to do something, you’ll be using a Trait.

There are three other elements of a character that, unlike Natures and Traits, are situational, in that you won’t always be including them for every roll of the dice. These are Bonds, Tools, and Grafts.

Bonds are a character’s emotional ties to other people – specifically, they’re ties to other characters. These come in four basic varieties: trust, distrust, loyalty, and betrayal.

Tools are items that help characters accomplish tasks, from a set of lockpicks to a length of rope to a socket wrench to a .38 Special. Usually, a Tool can only be used with a specific Trait.

Grafts are body parts from Horrors that have been transplanted onto a character’s body. These come in three varieties: Greater, Lesser, and Minor. Greater Grafts are things like giant bat wings, or two writhing tentacles in place of a character’s arms. Lesser Grafts are less severe, such as a tail or a single replaced limb, and Minor Grafts are much smaller: a Horrific (or third) eye, a tongue, or a sharp-toothed

mouth in a surprising new location. They also make people tougher and more survivable – big pluses in the post-apocalyptic landscape – and confer amazing recuperative powers when first transplanted. Many a life has been saved, or at least prolonged, by the timely application of a Graft.

Each of these five components is rated in die size, usually from d4 to d12. We’ll refer to these as your Trait die, your Nature die, your Bond die, and so on. Whenever you want to do something that requires a roll, you’ll roll one Trait die and one Nature die, add the results together to get your total, and compare that with a target number, or Target, to see if you succeeded or failed. If a Bond, Tool, or Graft is relevant, you’ll roll one or more of those, too.

For example, if you’re trying to fix a car and you have an ace set of tools, you’ll roll your Mechanical die, your Human die, and your Tool die. If you’re trying to steal Jim’s car and your Bond with Jim is “I’d betray Jim for a nice set of wheels,” you’d roll Mechanical, Human Nature, and your Bond with Jim.

Sometimes the rules refer to steps with regard to dice, like “+2 steps” or “-1 step.” Sometimes, a move up to the next highest die is called a “step forward”; a move down to the next lowest die, a “step back”.

For example, if you’re rolling a d6, +1 step would mean rolling a d8 instead; +2 steps (or “two steps forward”) would bump that d6 up to a d10, and -1 step (or “one step back”) would make it a d4. Dice can’t be raised higher than d12 or lower than d4, unless stated otherwise.

Those are the basics of the game.

I have tried rewriting a portion of Disconnect in this vein.

Scenario, Missions and Experience Kitty for Codename:Cribbage

Some of this was where I left off my work, with new completed section my work for today.

Basic Play: Scenarios, Missions, and Experience Kitty

Each Session of Disconnect is played by trying to complete a Mission. Corporations are constantly attempting to gain Market advantage by sabotaging new research, stealing technology, blackmailing CEO's, kidnapping scientists, and any other nefarious methodology imagined. Corporations employ Agents to attempt or prevent these plots, and each Session begins with the details of a new Mission.

The objective of a Mission is Narrated by the Game Master to all Players simultaneously, though the objectives of individual Agents may vary. It is up to the Player of an Agent to determine if their Corporation is acting benevolently, protecting the object of the Mission, is a part of the nefarious plot, or just interfering with both sides. This choice by the Player is not a reflection of their Agent. They can, for example, choose to have their Agent employed by a Corporation that acts in nefarious ways, but play an Agent with good intentions that slowly discovers the “Truth” behind their Corporation's actions. Or be an Agent who prefers the nefarious and is frustrated by their Corporation's lack of action and mettle to do what must be done.

A Player's choice of how their Agent's employing Corporation acts and their Agent's relationship to these actions should be an ongoing conversation with the Game Master. In this way both Game Master and Player can work to create a story that is interesting and surprising for all the participants.

To detail the Mission, the Game Master presents 5 – 10 Scenarios. Some, but not all of these Scenarios may actually be used to complete the Mission. Scenarios are somewhat vague and should leave enough room to allow the Players to Narrate interesting details during the Scenario Test. Scenarios have no set order, and none of them should be necessary to complete the Mission. The only exception to this rule is the first Scenario, which is chosen by the Game Master and to set the tone for the Session.

Example Scenarios can be Dr. Stevenson's Laboratory, Race Against Time, Chase Scene, The Lady of the House, and the like. The more ambiguous the description the better, and Scenarios that can be staged or defined in a number of different ways will allow the Players to vie for Narrating Aspects they can Exploit to their advantage.

As each Scenario is played through, the Players roll Tests for their Agents. For every Success rolled on a Test, whether a Scenario Test or a Skill Test, the Player Pegs their Successes out on the Cribbage Board, thus keeping a running total going of their cumulative Successes. The first Player to exceed the End of Mission total obtains the goal of the mission and the wins the final Scenario. The winning Agent's Player narrates the ending of both the Scenario and the Mission, and determines the outcome. They may also, depending on how ambiguous the Mission was described, determine the actual objective of the Mission. This narration should flow naturally from the previous events, with an eye kept out for the unexpected and dramatic.

With the exception of the Final Scenario which is won by the first Player to peg across the End of Mission line, the other Scenarios of the Mission are won as follows. Each Player narrates their Success from the initial Scenario Test, or subsequent Scenario Test if the previous Test were unsuccessful. After a Player has Narrated the last Success from their Scenario Pool, they may either add Successes by making a Solitary Skill Test, or may try to remove Successes from another Player's Scenario Pool by making an Opposed Skill Test. A Scenario is won by the last Player to have Successes left in their Scenario Pool. In other words, Player's vie to remove Successes from the other Players' Scenario Pools while protecting the Successes in their Pool. The winning Agent's Player is the last Player to still have Successes after all other Player's have had their Successes removed from their Scenario Pool.

For each Success removed from a Player's Scenario Pool, a token such as a a poker chip, coin, glass bead, etc... is added to a common pool called the Experience Kitty. The Experience Kitty is reset to zero at the beginning of each Scenario. Players add tokens to it for every Success removed from their Scenario Pool. Each token in the Experience Kitty represents one point of Experience, which can be used to improve an Agent's Skills, learn Special Training, and affect Aspects.

The Player that wins a Scenario collects the Experience Kitty. They Peg on the Cribbage Board a number of holes equal to the amount of tokens in the Experience Kitty. Before adding this number on their Agent's Dossier under Experience though, the other Players have the opportunity to Negotiate a Share.

To Negotiate a Share, the other Players may offer up either an Aspect or a Rating for an Aspect. This Aspect or Rating is for their Agent, and may be a general Aspect or an Aspect of a relationship to he winning Agent. The Aspect offered can be either a new Aspect or an existing Aspect. If it is an existing Aspect, then the offer is to increase its Rating. The winning Agent's Player may accept the offer, and if they do, they complete the offer by providing either a Rating for the offered Aspect, or an Aspect for the offered Rating. If the winning Player is returning the Rating, it cannot be greater then 3 (or increased by more then 3 for affecting an existing Aspect), though the Player is free to determine the Rating otherwise (strength of 2, known by 1 agent, strength of 1 known by 2 agents, or some other iteration for existing Aspects). The Player that is Negotiating a Share can then reject or accept the resulting Aspect with Rating, and has the final say if the new or existing Aspect will be added to their Dossier (and other Agents' Dossiers as applicable).

Once all offers have been made and accepted or declined, the Experience Kitty is divided evenly with the winning Agent's Player and all Players that successfully Negotiated a Share. Any left over tokens which result from dividing the Kitty go to the original winning Player. The Players that Shared the Kitty increase their Experience total on their Agent's Dossier by their number of tokens. They also roll 6d6 for the next Scenario Test instead of the normal 5d6. Any Player that attempted to Negotiate a Share of the Experience Kitty but had their offer rejected or did not accept the resulting Aspect and Rating, records a new Negative Aspect in their Dossier.

The winning Agent's Player then picks the next Scenario from those that remain. Play continues with rolling the next Scenario Test.

Play Overview for Codename:Cribbage

Here is the Play Overview I wrote for Codename: Cribbage.

Play Overview

Players create Agents with a brief background reviewed by the Game Master. The Game Master may ask for tweaks to the backgrounds to help create links and emotional connections to other Agents. The Game Master prepares a Mission and Scenarios for the first Session. The first Scenario of a Mission is chosen by the Game Master, and after introductory Narration, the Mission begins and the Agents are off!

Players create a Scenario Pool of dice by Narrating Successes from their Scenario Test. Each Success adds an Aspect to the Dossier of the Scenario. Players then perform actions using Solitary and Opposed Skill Tests, adding to their Agent's Scenario Pool or depleting dice from other Agents' Pools. Each Success rolled during a Test in Pegged on the Cribbage Board. Each dice removed from an Agent's Scenario Pool adds a Token to the collective Experience Kitty. The last Player with dice in their Scenario Pool Narrates the end of the Scenario, and gains Experience equal to the amount in the Experience Kitty. Players can Negotiate to share the Experience Kitty, and then the Kitty is reset to zero.

The Player who “won” the last Scenario, chooses the next Scenario. Each Player that shared in the Experience Kitty roll an additional d6 in the new Scenario Test. Play continues through Scenarios until a Player pegs past the agreed upon Mission Success level (usually 60). The first Player to reach the End of Mission not only Narrates the end of the last Scenario, but also the conclusion of the Mission. This Player also gains the Experience in the last Experience Kitty, and may Negotiate a share with other Players as normal.

Players may then spend the Experience earned by altering Aspects, Improving Skills and learning Special Training. Often this is done between Sessions. The Game Master makes preparations for the next Session, and play begins again.

Update time!

I got caught up in trying, and failing, to get Cribbage out on time. And of course the holidays, some unexpected health issues with my wife, and general life stuff...

Where I stand now. I got some serious meat produced for Cribbage, and I am pretty happy with it. I will continue to churn that out, hoping to "submit" it, or at least complete it as though I was going to submit it. I don't know if I'm going to compete in the Pathfinder contest yet or not. I don't own the book, and even $10 is hard to scrape up. I can still pretty easily submit the magic item, and will I think, but going much further will be difficult without more familiarity with the rules.

But focus has now shifted to two new contests, one form Simian Circle Games and the other this mysterious contest at Enworld.org. The Simian Circle contest I have codenamed Ascend. I have been thinking about and tinkering around with both it's Theme and Dice Mechanics for over a month. I am really excited about this one. The other contest I know nothing about, so I have no name as of yet.

My plans as of now. I am going to shoot for 3 entires a day, 6 days a week for an average. A Today's Challenge, where I challenge my creative self, a Codename:Ascend entry, and another, either Codename:Cribbage, Codename:Marionette, or something on this new contest. Ambitous, and we will revise my plans as needed....

:)

Potential cover art and and idea hopping continues

supremacy by ~dopaminart

Still image hopping and simultaneously groping for a name.

1. Conspiracy
2. Conspiracy of ....
3. Supremacy
4. Shadows
5. Linked
6. The things that we do
7. Dissonance
8. Poignant
9. Intrinsic
10. Cerebral
11. Silhouette
12. Profile
13. Desire/Conspire
14. Blindside
15. Double Cross
16. Betrayal
17. Deceit
18. Trust
19. Traces
20. Fingerprints

Dystopia 1 by ~LauraJWills

Today's Challenge: 10 Metallic Images for CN: Cribbage (bonus round!)

Hitting up DeviantArt once more, this time with "metallic".

Well, “metallic” only yielded this result

Aoi by *Vixxenfairy

So I moved on to cyber

The Magician by ~Gossengel

4 of Discs by ~Gossengel

A Good Night by ~UrbaniteByDesign

Profile by ~hunterkiller

"implant" (I know shudder right, but fortunately no NSFW) yielded

tActiCaL nEurAL iMpLAnT by ~LichtReize

"bionic"...

nada

"metallic eye" at least got me back to decent art

Borg by ~Jenya88

DAY 9- Digital Nightmare by ~StrangelyIsolated

Perfect Enemy. by =hybridgothica

Explosion. by =hybridgothica

So we came full circle, and I believe in =hybridgothica's work we have a winner... so much so that I can't even begin to narrow the list down to one from her.

Today's Challenge: 10 Spy Images for CN: Cribbage

Skipping ahead to the last Ingredient "list", Image Hunt. This will probably be a more or less daily challenge to myself as I hunt down images.

First off is 10 images I like while searching DeviantArt using "spy" as the subject, and branching out from there.

1. Spy by ~hazienuts
2. Spy by ~newfka
3. Spy by ~Timetint
4. Making Your Mind Up by =Life-takers-crayon
5. Extreme Ways by *aryundomiel
6. S.B. Covert Ops by ~Essiss
7. Ghost Town by ~Essiss
8. Spy by ~nikita-kely
9. Metallic green eye by ~nikita-kely
10. Bomb squad Dasha Intro 1 ruff by *PiratoLoco

Some good stuff, but none really hit quite the right note. Number 9 really got my imagination going though. So much so I think I will do a bonus Today's Challenge Image Hunt.

Narrowing the list for CN:Cribbage (Part I)

A reminder of rules of Game Fu #7: Pick 5 Ingredients, at least one of which must be from one of each of these three categories...

Ingredients

System Constraints

[Stuff]

Genre Blender

You must pick two of the following genres and combine the tropes listed to create your game. Picking additional ingredients from this category means adding an additional genre, and its tropes, to your setting (i.e. two ingredients from this category means three genres combined).

[Stuff]

Image Hunt

Instead of picking an image from a list presented here, you must go forth upon the interweb and hunt down images that best fit your game. Each ingredient from this category must include three images.

To Begin

… I will pare down the list in System Constraints. Most of this has been afloat in my head for the last several days, so not much creative work will likely be done in this post. But let's take a look at each one.

• All characters are designed by committee.

Not really my cup of tea, though I would like to tackle this one later in my design career. Plus no good correlation to the game of Cribbage. Interaction between this mechanic and a game where the players compete with one another is also a little wonky (though something that could be very interesting...)

• All statistics (Skills/Attributes/whatever) must be phrased as Haiku or other form of short poetic prose.

Awesome idea, and would lead itself to a great samurai (or other thematic genre). To a game of cribbage though? Plus most spy literature does not compare well to high literature...

• Character creation does not allow characters to have access to all attributes. They must choose which ones not to have values in.

Possible but not terribly exciting to me. On the list for now.

• Characters are composed of a core that is augmented by templates that can be swapped.

Certainly in keeping with some of the genre ideas below (Punk I'm looking at you). Save this one until genre

• Characters belong to a shared pool rather than individual players.

This and the by-Committee approach both fight the basic premise of CN:Cribbage. This one also really fights one of my Mechanics on this list.

• Characters' skills / abilities are generated / recorded using a Sudoku or Magic Square style grid.

Already have elements of one game prominently in CN:Cribbage. Don't want to mix my metaphors, so to speak.

• Does not use numbers to represent skills or attributes in any way.

I really like this idea. Struggle a bit with how to implement, which is a good thing. On the list.

• Game requires making sketches as a mechanic for task resolution, character creation, or whatever.

Another great spark for a game. Just not my first real design I think. Also I struggle with this and the haiku one, wondering how to keep players who suck at these activities from sucking at the game.

• Mechanics must use different die types for specific action types. (e.g. d6 for social, d8 for combat, d10 for magic)

This reminds me of Dogs in the Vineyard. Given the mechanic from this list that really grabs me, this relationship to Dogs is a good thing. In.

• Must include an emotional connection mechanic binding characters together.

And speak of the devil. How do you keep a game of players competing against each other from devolving? Tie them together in interesting ways that will drive play and insert interest into each scene (plus some other tricks up my sleeve.) This game will succeed if each scene is about crossing and double crossing, seduction and flirtation, getting even or getting ahead, etc... and the players meet in each scene over the objective, rather then the scenes being driven by the objective itself.

• Must use non-traditional randomizers (no dice or poker/playing cards)

Brain fart on my end as to what this would be... One day I am sure I will tackle this idea, but this ain't that day. (Sure it's challenging, but what would it add to the game once you unlocked it...)

• Players control character advancement

No immediate reason not to include (no thematic conflict), and challenging as all heck. Let's throw this one on the list.

• Resolution system must involve a bidding mechanic with a risk of loss.

Another mechanic that brought to mind Dogs. Played with the idea of rolling set number of dice upfront, and then bidding for who goes first in the scene. Each player starts with 10 chips with which to bid. Whoever wins the "hand" gets the chips. After the game is over, each person gains XP equal tot he amount of chips.

Then decided I was once again mixing metaphors (cribbage and poker). Will have to keep this in the back of my head though for a Deadlands style game though...

• Reverse dice pool resolution, where all dice in a pool have to succeed. Penalties add dice, bonuses remove dice.

Interesting twist, and will fill for later consideration. A little too specific for my tastes in a competition like this.

In Conclusion

The list as it stands:

• Character creation does not allow characters to have access to all attributes. They must choose which ones not to have values in.
• Characters are composed of a core that is augmented by templates that can be swapped.
• Does not use numbers to represent skills or attributes in any way.
• Mechanics must use different die types for specific action types. (e.g. d6 for social, d8 for combat, d10 for magic)
• Must include an emotional connection mechanic binding characters together.
• Players control character advancement

With emotional connection and players control advancement being the two big drivers right now.

Answer to yesterday's question...

Yesterday I asked the following question...

"And now to the most important question: Who would race each other in the context of imaginary play and allow for multiple instances of entertaining and twisting interaction?"

and the answer, for me, is Spies! Thinking along the lines of Alias meets Ocean's 11 (12, 13). The players will compete against each other each "episode" to retrieve an item, information, etc... The first player across the cribbage line "wins" that episode, and claims the objective for their Organization.

Each "hand" will be a scene with an objective that moves the players closer to the item. Successes will accrue during the "hand" and be kept track of on the Cribbage board. Rolls will be for things like snappy dialog, psionics, hacking, infiltration, connections, combat, etc..

Codename: Cribbage

I don't know why this particular Ingredient for Game Fu leaped out at me:

Miscellanea

• Game requires the use of pieces from a traditional board game, other than dice.

But it did. Immediately Cribbage (which doesn't even meet the critera, since it is arguably not a board game) leaped into my mind's eye. I could see the players "racing" each other around the cribbage board. I think it was a quick alignment of my recent desire to have amount of success matter as much as the binary switch of success/failure, and the word board which brought forth this very clear way of tracking amounts of success.

And now to the most important question: Who would race each other in the context of imaginary play and allow for multiple instances of entertaining and twisting interaction?

Game Fu #7 Competition

Here is one of several competitions I plan on entering...

Game Fu #7 as seen on RPGnet.