So finally, Ingenero is published.

[stefoid]

Well, after 100s of posts about RPGs to Rons forums, finally I have a game published of my own.  Please ask me questions about it.

The website with a further summary available for download is here:

http://ingenero.wordpress.com/

I wanted a game that supports play like Deadwood or Game of Thrones?  A game where you could be Al Swerengen and the system would back that up.  What does that mean?

• The characters and their disparate goals and motivations are the focus of play.
  Cinematic action.
  Emotion-charged drama.
  Character-driven pacing.

Ingenero's system directly supports these vital ingredients.  How?

• Character's motives are strongly supported during character creation and integrate with the rest of the system.
  The game revolves around characters setting goals and going after them.   Those goals can be things the characters wants to accomplish, or they can be things that feed the character's emotional needs - internal goals.
  Internal goals are satisfied via dramatic scenes where characters use emotional manipulation and observation as their tools.
  There are two modes of play that switch when characters are close to achieving their goals, ensuring that play does not overly focus on events that arent that important.

[Ron Edwards]

Congratulations!

Hey, a quick question: can you describe a bit of mechanics for me, preferably with an actual-play example? Specifically, I want to know about brutal, physically committed, violent conflict - say, my character totally wants to cut that guy's head off, this moment. How is that done?

Best, Ron

[stefoid]

Thanks Ron - couldnt have done it without you.  Sincerely.

Brutally committing to cutting someones head off is handled a number of ways depending on the context.  The game has two phases, story phase and challenge phase.  Story phase is for play where no significant characters goals are immediately on the line. (PC or significant NPC).   So if for some reason, a PC decided to act this way in story phase, well, it would just happen.  Blood spurting horrible murder, as described.  Of course there might be significant fictional consequences as a result, but mechanically, the PCs intentions would play out as desired, more or less.

However, if these intentions are started during challenge phase, meaning that a characters goals are close to be achieved, then the challenge phase mechanics become involved.

Characters have a Body stat between 2 and 6 for humans.   Think hit points.  When a character's body is taken to 0 of below they are out of the immediate contest - they cant go on, and in the case of NPCs, that may mean hideous bloody decapitation at that point, if that is the PCs stated intention.

There is an example conflict on my website in the 5 page summary.  Here is that example extracted and tweaked to demonstrate decapitation and the use of fictional positioning to achieve it quickly.  Ingenero conflict demands fictional positioning to be used 'properly'.  Otherwise it is just a tit-for-tat battle of attrition.

Here is the PC, with those plays relevant to physical conflict

Name: Major Septimus Braithwaite
Concept: He is a thoroughly British, scholarly type of military officer in his 50s. Slight of build and partially lame, yet keeps himself in good physical condition. An avid student of the occult and secret practitioner of magic.
Body: 3 Soul: 5
Proficiencies: SORCERER 3 (Combat magic 5), BEUREAU OFFICER 3
Plays:
+1 Hold attackers at bay with deft sword-cane blocks and precision slashes
+1 Shoot calmly and efficiently with a pistol at arms length +1 Rattle a single opponent with a thundering command word
+1 Halt a supernatural being, for a time, with a warding word and raised palms
+1 Smash or bend an object, or hurt someone, with a blow and a power word
+1 Deflect any kind of attack with a protection word and cutting hand

Here is his NPC opponent.


Name: Rainer Hertz
Body: 6, Soul 2
Proficiencies: COMMANDO 3 (Melee 6), BUREAU AGENT 2
Plays:
+2 Ignore a flesh wound as if it never happened
+2 Shrug off impact or a blow with a shake of his head
+1 Use an opponent or something heavy to knock down other opponents like skittles +1 Carry a large heavy object for cover when shot at
+1 Stagger an opponent with a massive roundhouse blow

Rainer has interrupted Septimus stealing an artifact from the office, and attempts to stop him.  for the sake of Brevity, let us say the robust German is already down to 3 Body due to previous harm

Septimus hopes to gain an advantage* over Rainer by rattling him with a thundering command word (signature play).
Rainer charges in to knock Septimus over before he can react (improvised play).

* Septimus' intention is to gain an advantage that he can follow up strongly latter.  If successful he will get a significant advantage, but this action will produce no harm.

Septimus rolls 5D10 for his offensive magic proficiency, resulting in a highest value of 9. He adds 1 for his signature play for a total of 10. Rainer rolls 6D10 for his melee proficiency, resulting in a highest value of 7. He receives no bonus for an improvised play. Septimus' play takes effect, and Rainer is staggered momentarily, giving Septimus a temporary +4 bonus in the next round.

Septimus attempts to capitalize and physically hurt Rainer with a blow and a power word (signature).  "I want to kill the SOB" declares his player "I want to explode his head like a melon!!"  *

* thing is a normal harm intent does 1 point of harm to the body.  Septimus' player knows to pulp someones head he needs to get them down to 0, so he needs to do 3 points of harm in this instance.

The fictional positioning to achieve extra harm in Ingenero is called risking.  You can risk body or soul (the two ingenero stats), which is to say you are putting your own body or soul on the line in order to increase your outcome.  Raising the stakes.  To do this the player has to describe what, in fictional terms, is being risked.   Advantage plays and risk-taking are optional, but without them, it becomes a 1 harm per turn battle of attrition, which might suit some characters in some circumstances. 

So, Septimus, seeing Rainer is momentarily stunned ( gains+4 momentary advantage bonus over him) decides to risk 2 points of body towards increasing the harm of his intended action, so as to finish Rainer off once and for all.  The player might describe this as "Im going to risk getting inside Rainers reach to ensure my Power Blow has maximum effect"    So if Septimus play wins the day, Rainers head explodes like a melon.  If it doesn't, Septimus looses the 2 body he risked.  The GM would narrate exactly how, but having allready established the way Septimus has risked body - by stepping into Rainers reach to finish him off - that more or less writes itself.

Rainer goes purely defensive, employing his signature shrug off impact or a blow with a shake of his head.

Septimus will roll 5D10 (offensive magic) and then add +4 (advantage) and +1 (signature play) to the highest value. Rainer will roll 6D10 (melee), +1 (pure defence) and +2 (signature play)...  May the best roll win.

[stefoid]

Oh, lets say Septimus decides to risk Soul instead of Body - what would that mean, and how would it play out?

Soul is a mixture of chutzpah, confidence, resolve etc...  If the character is low on Soul they are in a less stable and committed frame of mind, more prone to acting emotionally.

Again, to risk you have to say fictionally what is being risked.    An example in this case is Septimus might risk his confidence that his magical might can prevail over Rainers supernatural brute force.  After all, he is never going to get a better shot at Rainer than this - if he fails, that becomes significant.

So if Rainer is able to shrug off Septimus best attack with a shake of his head   then Septimus looses 2 Soul and his confidence is shaken in the way described above.  Fortunately Septimus is mentally strong, and goes into this conflict in a good state of mind, so he is able to carry on in this contest despite his inner misgivings.  However if his soul goes to 0 or below, he must abandon his goal (obtaining the artefact) and probably would try to extricate himself from what he sees as a hopeless situation against an indomitable foe,  as soon as possible.

[stefoid]

Finally, let us say that Septimus did in fact loose the challenge and flee with his soul at 0 or less.   This is a highly emotional state for Septimus that can only be remedied by regaining lost Soul back to +ve territory.  If Septimus has XP in reserve, he can spend these on regaining soul and regain his resolve immediately.

Another way is for the player to regain 2 points of Soul by writing down a new motive for the character.  Perhaps something like "Rainer cannot be bested in a physical challenge"  or "Magic is not the answer to every situation"

[stefoid]

Any questions, comments?

Ingenero system design principles:
These five principles guide the design of the system.  If they appeal to you, you'll love this system. 

1) Improvisation:  Ingenero scenarios are designed around an intriguing initial situation and a cast of great characters -- both PCs and NPCs -- and everybody improvises play from that point, including the GM.  So the GM is just another player with a cast of characters to play.  There is no preconceived plot to stick to.

possible problems avoided:  trying to stick to a preconceived plot is stressful for the GM and robs the players of choice.

2) Character-driven focus and pacing:  During play, the things that should be focussed on and examined are the things that matter to the characters - their aims and goals.  In fact the system has two alternating phases of play specifically to deal with events that are highly relevant to characters goals and those that aren't.  Which of course means that the players dictate the pace and focus of the game through their choice of character goals.

possible problems avoided:  bored or unsatisfied players because what is happening during play isn't relevant for their character and vice-versa.

3) Internal goals are just as important as external goals: An external goal is when a character wants to make something external to himself happen - win a fight, rob a bank, kiss a girl, etc--  Internal goals are those that satisfy something within the character -- generally giving the character some sense of emotional satisfaction such as gaining admiration, feeding an ego, asserting their status over someone else, etc--  Ingenero treats these goals of equal importance during play.  Another way to say it is -- whats going on in a characters head is just as important as what the character does.

possible problems avoided:  focusing on purely external achievements may make for 'samey' play, one-dimensional characters and lack of interpersonal drama.

4)  Fictional positioning is key:  During action challenges, fictional positioning and risk-taking are the main paths to success.  Fictional positioning means finding a way to get your character into an advantageous position and then capitalising on it.  Such as gaining the high ground, providing covering fire, knocking an opponent off balance, etc--  Ingenero also allows characters to increase their effectiveness if they put themselves in increased physical or mental danger, such as stepping out of cover to get a better shot, or staking your last hope on a decisive action.  Combined, these tactics encourage colourful and dramatic action sequences.

possible problems avoided:  straight up battles of attrition that rely on low-probability dice outcomes to spice things up.

5) Emotional manipulation is key:  During social challenges, social skills affect perception and emotion, but they don't dictate outcomes.  Players always retain control of how their characters respond to those emotions or perceptions.  If one character makes another afraid, for example, the other players character decides how to respond to that fear.  It might be to try to hide it, or run away, or retaliate.  The same for any emotion, shame, greed, happy - whatever.

possible problems avoided:  Social skills being a 'mind-control' option with a binary outcome.

[Ron Edwards]

Thanks!

I think the author of Sorcerer greatly appreciates those five principles.

Given the trend of my thinking in the past year or two, I'm interested now in how you conceive setting to work in your game. To provide a little context, here are some things I've been considering, especially for Sorcerer, and they seem to be relevant to your design.

1. Change in the character is the core variable. Setting may or may not change, either as a function of prep or a result of play, or both, but the "may or may not" is important - it's a secondary variable.

2. Setting does matter - it's not mere "skin." It matters because it provides crucial context and adversity for the characters. In other words, it matters insofar as it contributes to Situation. Another way to put this is that Color doesn't mean "trivial." Therefore although in this kind of game, Setting often contributes most by providing Color, that is irreplaceable Color; it can't merely be changed out as "broadwords to laser-guns" with no consequence.

To forestall hysteria, the above points are not universals. They do not apply to my current Hero Wars game (or any application of those rules, as I see them), for example. These points are strictly and only in the context of the five principles listed above for In Genero.

Tell me more about setting in In Genero - is it like GURPS, in which no matter what, you're playing GURPS with a distinctive look and feel; or does it matter in terms of those two above points?

Disclosure: I dislike Game of Thrones, based only on my reading of the first three books (I haven't seen the show and have no opinion about it). It strikes me as generic in the most negative sense of the word, in the way that so many "historical novels" or films are merely modern pot-boilers and action films in fancy dress and fake (and ahistorical) English accents, and - not as important to my point here - plot-padded to the point of idiocy.

Best, Ron

In case you're interested and for an illustration of parallel thinking, my three principles for Sorcerer in the new annotations are:

Plot cannot be prepped. Just forget that whole idea. This is about making stories in a genuinely emergent and creative way, not about one person delivering them, nor even about one person improvising them on the spot. And most importantly, play does not guarantee them. You only get a story from Sorcerer if it's something you and everyone else absolutely fanatically want to do.

You can't game the universe. There are no break points to exploit, no funky modifiers to stack, no optimal builds. There are plenty of tactics, yes, but strategy, no. Your character will only and ever merely have a shot at getting what he or she wants. Take your shot. You can't lock down its success before that.

Nothing is sacred. There is no safety net anywhere, a principle which is manifested in several ways.

• First, your character's life. It's not easy or quick in this game, most of the time, but your character can die. And less fatally but perhaps more traumatically, nothing in this game is built to ensure that your character succeeds in their goals and dreams.
• Second, your character's value. The game does not afford you the privilege of playing a protagonist. In fact, it even encourages you to flirt with the possibility of what some call the "moral event horizon," in the form of the Humanity mechanic. If you want to play a real protagonist, someone anyone cares a bit about, then you must earn it.
• Third, the quality of the emergent story. The game encourages your inspiration and creates a means for it to appear as imagery and events. It leaves open the question of whether you have any inspiration worth doing that with.

Best, Ron

[stefoid]

Hi Ron,  the philosophy of sorcerer was a big influence in many ways.

Im afraid youre going to have to dumb it down for me?  Im not really sure what youre getting at with your setting points.

Ingenero relies heavily on a premise for the game, and often the importance of the setting to any particular game depends n what the premise is.  I can see some games where the setting is colour that could be switched from broadswords to  laserguns without changing the premise and some where that would be impossible.

Thanks!

I think the author of Sorcerer greatly appreciates those five principles.

Given the trend of my thinking in the past year or two, I'm interested now in how you conceive setting to work in your game. To provide a little context, here are some things I've been considering, especially for Sorcerer, and they seem to be relevant to your design.

1. Change in the character is the core variable. Setting may or may not change, either as a function of prep or a result of play, or both, but the "may or may not" is important - it's a secondary variable.

2. Setting does matter - it's not mere "skin." It matters because it provides crucial context and adversity for the characters. In other words, it matters insofar as it contributes to Situation. Another way to put this is that Color doesn't mean "trivial." Therefore although in this kind of game, Setting often contributes most by providing Color, that is irreplaceable Color; it can't merely be changed out as "broadwords to laser-guns" with no consequence.

To forestall hysteria, the above points are not universals. They do not apply to my current Hero Wars game (or any application of those rules, as I see them), for example. These points are strictly and only in the context of the five principles listed above for In Genero.

Tell me more about setting in In Genero - is it like GURPS, in which no matter what, you're playing GURPS with a distinctive look and feel; or does it matter in terms of those two above points?

Disclosure: I dislike Game of Thrones, based only on my reading of the first three books (I haven't seen the show and have no opinion about it). It strikes me as generic in the most negative sense of the word, in the way that so many "historical novels" or films are merely modern pot-boilers and action films in fancy dress and fake (and ahistorical) English accents, and - not as important to my point here - plot-padded to the point of idiocy.

Best, Ron

In case you're interested and for an illustration of parallel thinking, my three principles for Sorcerer in the new annotations are:

Plot cannot be prepped. Just forget that whole idea. This is about making stories in a genuinely emergent and creative way, not about one person delivering them, nor even about one person improvising them on the spot. And most importantly, play does not guarantee them. You only get a story from Sorcerer if it's something you and everyone else absolutely fanatically want to do.

You can't game the universe. There are no break points to exploit, no funky modifiers to stack, no optimal builds. There are plenty of tactics, yes, but strategy, no. Your character will only and ever merely have a shot at getting what he or she wants. Take your shot. You can't lock down its success before that.

Nothing is sacred. There is no safety net anywhere, a principle which is manifested in several ways.

• First, your character's life. It's not easy or quick in this game, most of the time, but your character can die. And less fatally but perhaps more traumatically, nothing in this game is built to ensure that your character succeeds in their goals and dreams.
• Second, your character's value. The game does not afford you the privilege of playing a protagonist. In fact, it even encourages you to flirt with the possibility of what some call the "moral event horizon," in the form of the Humanity mechanic. If you want to play a real protagonist, someone anyone cares a bit about, then you must earn it.
• Third, the quality of the emergent story. The game encourages your inspiration and creates a means for it to appear as imagery and events. It leaves open the question of whether you have any inspiration worth doing that with.

Best, Ron

[stefoid]

By way of example, two sample premises used in teh Ingenero rulebook as being 'good' premises.

"The adventures of a bunch of misfits, thrown together by circumstance, struggling to work together in order to survive".

So for this game, the setting is skin



"Heroes that strive to achieve glory for themselves and their community despite adversity and the whims of the gods."

Whereas for this one, the setting is important - obviously ancient greece or something similar, and its concept of glory, community and its capricious gods.

[stefoid]

Hey Ron, I was wondering if you could clarify your last post in this thread?  Im curious to know what you have been mulling over and how it relates to my game.

Steve

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to leave you hanging - your answers actually satisfied my curiosity and I figured we were done with that bit. I'm not sure what to clarify, as you did distinguish between [setting as a source of adversity for character-centric play] and [skin], and that was my only real concern. Furthermore, the concern was not intended as a direct critique of anything in the game, but was more of a descriptive matter, so whatever you answered, as long as it was an answer, was sufficient.

I'd like to talk more about Ingenero, and I greatly appreciate you sending it to me (I found an older version on my hard drive too from days gone by), but it's a bit of a hunk of burnin' love of game text and I'm a little wrapped up in a couple manuscripts at the moment.

I guess what would help more dialogue is some actual play talk. Does anything come to mind as a good basis? You've already illustrated some of the mechanics, so that's not really an issue. Can you show how the game makes good on its the Deadwood/Game of Thrones references?

Best, Ron

[stefoid]

Ive seen a couple of players behave in new ways at the table which is very encouraging, which is down to permission, basically - explicit goals give the player permission to put their character's matters at center stage, and those goals can be internal - so that player has permission to make what is going on inside their characters head an official 'thing'.

The goblin world scenario is a fun little caper of a game, but the concept of goblin dominance, bikering and one-upmanship that might otherwise have been a sideshow (and maybe an annoying one to groups), has permission to be the main focus of the game.

These HBO type of shows have a lot of character development scenes where characters behave irrationally - emotionally - and its not immediately obvious as to why.  Ingenero's basic tool for social challenges is emotional manipulation.  It focusses players on the emotional components of their characters and how their characters react to various emotions.