Color-first Endeavor: back in action!

[Ron Edwards]

Everyone has done exactly what I asked, and I appreciate it. In case anyone's missed it, the games are very neatly divided into contrasting explicit instructions about character preparation -you as the player do it entirely on your own (Dawn of a New Tomorrow, Aberrant, HDGs & DDDs, Over the Edge), or you do it as you please but in the context of a group/team concept (Freemarket, My Life with Master).

Before I go into Topic #2, here's my last thought for the moment: go back and look at the image, and think about that dollar sign. It means something to the character, in the fiction, it means something to you, and it will mean something to the other people at the table.

All six of us interpreted it in different ways, which is great to see since I knew it would be problematic in a useful way. Contrast it, for example, with a plain lightning bolt, which is entirely non-problematic to the point of providing no impetus into the character creation; or with a cartoon erect penis, which would be problematic but boring (I mean, as such). A quick comparison:

Chris: the dollar sign is played straight as far as I can tell, a real hero for the 10%. The question for me is whether this is viable at the table at all.

Ricardo: the dollar sign is partly subverted into its historical and occult meaning, although still tied to wealth; absolutely perfect for Al Amarja.

John: the dollar sign is completely inverted as humiliating and nigh-ridiculous, a symbol of how low the Master is willing to make John go; his acceptance of the persona is at the core of his subservience and dehumanization.

David: the dollar sign is secondary, stylistic to the point of being a mere personal affection; hard to tie into the two ways the character seems aimed - team member or target for factions' exploitation - and doing so has a lot to do with the factions-context the other players and the GM bring to the game.

Ickarus: the dollar sign is almost completely elided or there for developing - why would a symbol of currency matter to a Donut audience, whose currency is absolutely abstract, electronic, socially mediated, and subject to no exchange rate? It could go either way, dropped as minor detail of humorous interest only to the audience, or developed into a serious means of questioning the popularity-as-money light-libertarianism of the setting. Interestingly, the game provides precisely the means to discover which way to go, based on what happens to the memories in terms of game mechanics. (I agree that the goal of making a guitar seems almost like a dodge away from any such potential.)

Milton: the dollar sign is partly deconstructed/inverted - he's a Dastardly Deed Doer, i.e., a super-villain, but focused and ideological to the point of sympathetic humor; he's trying to re-brand the dollar politically. The question is whether any of this is functional in the context of a rather deadly and uncompromising system.

If you want to talk about anything else related to the sheet and character preparation, that's cool, but in the interest of not getting bogged down like the original Color-first project did, I'd like to jump right along into Topic #2. We can always go back after all three topics have been dealt with.

Topic #2: Reward system and mechanics, in the colorful thick of it
A reward system is easy and fundamental: the enjoyment to be had out of play, focusing on input-to-output.

A reward mechanic effectively revises character creation ... which is actually stating it backwards, because as I see it, character creation is basically the starting conditions for a reward system to rev, as in revving a motor.

A character sheet is a reward system's way of making another character sheet

Show us some of this in action, mechanically. Imagine that you've played the character enough so some changes get going on the character sheet, but only just enough so that the decisions about the character might be a little different than they were at the start. For example, for a D&D character like Lord Hyrax's son, whom I mentioned above, level him up one time.

In pure mechanics terms, what numbers or descriptive terms change? What numbers must change? How are any of these numbers related to Currency issues of initial character creation?

One special question is: what is contingent about those changes, if anything? On what?

Finally, and also key: any changes in Positioning!! How are the character's circumstances and relationships different? What happens in play to make that happen? Who does it? How formal or mechanized is it, in terms of the character sheet? I realize that this could only truly be answered through play, but go ahead and imagine what it might or could be.

Best, Ron

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

Show us some of this in action, mechanically. Imagine that you've played the character enough so some changes get going on the character sheet, but only just enough so that the decisions about the character might be a little different than they were at the start. For example, for a D&D character like Lord Hyrax's son, whom I mentioned above, level him up one time.

My "level him up one time" was to take Ickarus through two imaginary Freemarket sessions.

In pure mechanics terms, what numbers or descriptive terms change?

At the end of every session, you bump any short-term Memories into any available long-term slots, and erase the rest (During the session you wrote down anything interesting or exciting or grabby that you experienced as short-term memories). At the beginning of the next session, you upgrade one long-term Memory into an Experience. If it makes sense to the relevant Experience, you erase the long-term Memory and add 1 to that Experience's rating.

For the beginning of the imaginary second session, I erased that memory of 6.3 Jen breaking up with me to learn something about social relationships, and gave myself Social Engineering (1).

I took the "two sessions" concept and added in the beginning of the third session, so we see the process happen one more time. I have more new Memories now, but I bumped the one about seeing Maimed Dog perform and wanting to make a guitar up to a long-term Memory, then into a point of Cultivation, so I now have Cultivation (2). It's the Superuser's call on whether a Memory applies to the Experience you want it to increase; in this case I imagine Ron is a nice dude and lets me stretch a little bit to make this a Cultivation Experience (this is how I handled similar situations when I run the game).

I also imagined a Challenge where I got my MRCZ-mate Urlo to don the Penny Girl costume. We hooked up with a filmmaking MRCZ, and their actors pretended to be goons stealing pie and valuable paper money from the Pie Shoppe MRCZ, while we came in, pretended to beat them up, and restored order and the goods to the Pie Shoppe. To do well in this Challenge I had to Burn my Show Flyer Tech, reducing its current rating to (0) from (1).

By the beginning of the third session, I imagine we've seen how the Challenge system works and how Group Challenges are where you get a lot of Flow. We've had some losses, but by and large we've done well and my Flow has increased from 10 to 41. Part of that boost is from a Recycling Challenge where I merged some Tech to create an audio-holographic amplifier for Maimed Dog. I didn't get any Flow rebate from the Challenge, but I did get 10 Flow for giving it away to Maimed Dog.

What numbers must change?

The Experience numbers I mentioned above must change. Not those exact Experiences necessarily, but you will increase one Experience every session, no matter what happens in the game. I suppose the rules say may--if your Memories are too precious to you in their current form, you don't have to convert them. I don't imagine that happens often or ever, though.

Nothing else has to change. Wait, scratch that: Flow inevitably will change from playing the game (you can never engage the Challenge system and never risk Flow, but are you really playing Freemarket at that point?), but it's possible for it to go up and down and end up at the same number. Still, it has changed.

I don't have to Burn anything. I can play the game for many sessions and never Burn anything.

How are any of these numbers related to Currency issues of initial character creation?

How are these related to the Currency issues of initial character creation? Pardon some thinking out loud: Well, my Tech (and Interface) is a resource that can be used to gain effectiveness. Flow is a resource, straight up. Experiences are effectiveness. My Memories, which feed into the effectiveness of Experiences (and can be converted into Data in play and Gifted, netting Flow--a resource), are all about positioning: they show who I am, where I've been, and where I'm going.

Can you see from my previous descriptions of how the numbers changed and the above paragraph delineating what things in the game mean in terms of Currency that there's a constant dance between all the elements of Currency in the game? I suppose that's nothing new; that's how a roleplaying game works. It looks like I've thought myself into circles on this question. Help?

One special question is: what is contingent about those changes, if anything? On what?

Maybe I described this without knowing it in the preceding two confusing paragraphs. What is contingent about the changes in the numbers on my character sheet? What are those changes in numbers contingent on (I want to make sure I'm understanding the question right)? Those changes are contingent on where I took my character in play: We performed in the Pie Shoppe, and to do well I Burned my Tech, reducing its number. I chose Memories to advance to Experiences largely based on which Experiences I wanted to improve. I worked to make some Tech for Maimed Dog because its a part of my MRCZ's purpose, and besides, it nets me Flow, which I can use to do other things I want to do.

The Flow going up and down is contingent upon all of this, the whole session. Engaging in a Challenge means I'll gain or lose Flow; occasionally I'll come out even. Make that audio-holographic amp and giving it away got me Flow; it also might get me a friend in Maimed Dog which'll get me more Flow and some Social Insurance if I ever tank my Flow.

Finally, and also key: any changes in Positioning!! How are the character's circumstances and relationships different? What happens in play to make that happen? Who does it? How formal or mechanized is it, in terms of the character sheet? I realize that this could only truly be answered through play, but go ahead and imagine what it might or could be.

Well, Ickarus has more Flow, which means he can do more and bigger things, if he cares to. He and his MRCZ are well on their way to making it to MRCZ Tier 2 status, which means more people and bigger space. This change is all reliant upon specific Flow numbers: If our Flow goes up, our MRCZ's Flow goes up, and if it gets to a certain number (14, in this case), we can Challenge to make it to Tier 2. My Flow going up is contingent upon me doing well in those Challenges I described earlier, and Gifting that amp. Helping my other MRCZ-mates (as I definitely did in some of their own Challenges) helps them to get Flow as well, which all helps our MRCZ to get Flow.

I also have some Friends now, where I didn't before. You don't start play with any Friends, but usually MRCZ-mates pretty quickly Friend each other. So I have these four on my Friend list: Urlo, Interrobang, Faux W.G., and Hal Jordan. Each of those Friendings gave me 2 Flow, for an 8 Flow bump. I write the Friends down on my character sheet, as well as the change in Flow. I now have some Social Insurance should I make myself not useful or generally unwanted on the station.

Also, after Gifting that amp, Maimed Dog's bass player Friended me, so I wrote down Richmund as a Friend and got another two Flow. I have a real connection there. He's on my Friend channel, we can ping each other any time, and I'm at least a little socially liable for his actions, and he for mine.

I have some Social Engineering and more Cultivating, now. I'm better at doing those things; I have a better chance at winning big in a Challenge--getting exactly what I want and getting a Flow rebate. I'm more effective at growing and making things, and more effective at getting what I want from people in Social situations.

My Show Flyer is Burned out, meaning I can't use it in any Challenges. I might discard it, or try to fix it, or find some other Tech and try to merge it with that. In any case, doing so means I'm less effective at Ephemera Challenges for now, and to fix that I'll have to risk Flow or find someone who will fix it for me, extending my social/obligation network.


So: please let me know if I'm off track in any of this. I feel like I'm wading my way through some deep waters that I'm a little unsure in.

[Markus]

Sorry but it seems I'm the slowest thinker here-- I'll try to catch up with others.

Topic #1: color goes in

To be ultra-synthetic, I'd say that all my expectations for play at this stage are fundamentally tied to the 50-50 mixture of (1) knowing the GM (in the sense of knowing or imagining his own expectations and interests), and (2) the one bit of color I got from the GM before play (i.e. the character portrait). I say this because the OTE system is, hmmm, very transparent (read almost absent) regarding practically everything that might got me excited at this stage, including all the points mentioned by Ron for topic#1.

If I look at the character sheet, I see a few traits that I choose in complete freedom (and you know what I think about free-for-all trait selection), plus a few nonmechanical cues like Ricardo's secret, a tiny bit of backstory, his motivations and physical description. Playing the game as it's written, absolutely everything might or might not be incorporated into actual play depending on the GM's whim. There are several passages in the book that suggest to create PC that have interesting bits and pieces *for the GM to use*, so the main responsibility is on his shoulders. As a player, the game doesn't give me much to influence the process.

Numerically, my character is absolutely identical to every starting OTE character except for a low HP score and a fringe central trait. From a strictly mechanical point of view, the only thing the system is guaranteeing to me is that Ricardo can survive at most a couple of rounds of serious combat, perhaps not even one if firearms are involved. I don't even know what to expect from the fact that my central trait (alchemy), the one I built my character around, has a lower-than-normal value (2 instead of 4 because it's a fringe trait). After all, I don't even know which sorts of numerical targets I'll be rolling against, or even when or how often I'll use the trait.

Then, there's the problem of those 150 pages of the rulebook that contain the canonical setting of the game. My personal hope is that the GM will totally ignore the canon and will work with me and my fellow players using our character sheets as I would use the 4-sided diagram in sorcerer (the "diagram at the back", although my favorite sorcerer sheet has it at the very center of the page). This would probably happen around 50% pre-play and 50% in the first few sessions.

Thematically, the OTE canonical background is in my opinion very bland, because it's a mishmash of everything you can imagine in a big soup. To my eyes, nothing emerges from this soup, on which to have any specific expectations for thematic play. No politics, no irony, no sex, nothing. So I'm still at the starting point.

So yes, I'd say that the all the 'sparkle' for this character is given by that single point of contact between the GM's creative input ($!) and my interpretation of it, both colored by the OTE imagery. An interesting point: our perception of OTE imagery in turn was generated by the extensive description of the canonical setting, whose use in play I loathe so much. Hmmm, food for thought.

Topic #2- reward in action

Mechanically, OTE characters have this thing called "experience pool" (even starting characters have 1 exp die). They're basically one-shot bonus die that you can burn on any roll, provided that you give a small description of how some past event you experienced in the past is helping you with the roll. For example, rolling against a thug attacking me with a knife, I might say "last week I survived a direct SMG hit, a couple of scratches won't stop me". I might also say something a bit more interesting like "my beloved is in danger, I'm just not feeling the pain". However, the exp pool is completely agnostic about how you use it. I feel it will be one of my responsibilities as a player to use the dice in a thematically interesting way.

You can also permanently burn exp dice to buy new traits, to increase their value, to increase HPs etc etc. You know, the sort of stuff you'd expect from a 1997 game.

From the book: "At the end of every game session, the GM *can* (emphasis mine) award bonus dice to the characters who partook in the action, and these dice are added to your experience pool". Apart from the fact that I just love the word "partook", the important bit here is that the GM "can" award exp dice. I checked the few paragraphs of the GM section explaining how to award dice but they're extremely handwavy: "hey GM, award exp dice for this and this, give them few if you want them to progress slowly, give them a lot if you want the opposite", this sort of thing. So again, I can't really be sure about how and when the mechanical parts of the reward system will kick in. But a few session in, if the GM is generous, I might be able to bump up a trait that seemed interesting in play, or added another one based on some events in the fiction, or maybe I'll raise that pathetic HP count if I see that I can't evade danger indefinitely.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the contingency question, but it seems that all of the above is described in the book as purely mechanical, i.e. "when you spend exp, it becomes true". Again, making sense of the advancements, making them *relevant*, will be a key responsibility of players.

Given the above, I foresee that the most exciting changes to the character will be nonmechanical, i.e. circumstances and relationships. Looking at my character sheet as a sorcerer diagram, opportunities abound. There's the secret illuminati-like faction that's looking for me: Ricardo could come into contact with one of their agents and forge an unexpected relationship with him, maybe they could become allies, maybe even lovers. Yes, that'd be fun: the first and only person with which he manages to establish a really sincere and intense romantic relationship is the one who was paid to [kill/kidnap/whatever] him. I'd be curious to see how the GM would play the NPC agent-- This is just an example, of course: the possibilities are practically endless (which is usually a bad thing in my opinion, but anyway).

How formal or mechanized is all of the above, in terms of the character sheet and the reward mechanics? I'd say not at all. I could just amass exp dice without burning them, buying no new traits, or the GM might give me so few that I couldn't do much anyway. When something changes in the immediate circumstances of my character, I have no Sorcerer/Polaris style diagram to revise, no systematized processing of relationship whatsoever, etc etc.

To sum it up, making OTE's reward system interesting would require a constant influx of care, attention and creativity on my part (and that's good), but would also require self-imposed restraints on how exactly to use it (only make thematically significant changes, try to make color relevant, try to use the free-for-all advancement mechanics to "simulate" modern tools like sorcerer's diagram or relationship traits, etc etc). In this respect I think playing would be fun, but somewhat taxing.

***

[Side note - to do OTE some justice, I must say it has its high moments as well, even from today's perspective. For example, I could find no trace of the dreaded (but almost mandatory in the 90s) "rule zero", or prompts to the GM to fudge the dice as he likes. It also contains a very good (for 1997) essay by Robin D. Laws that already foreshadows some of the ideas that were later refined and more clearly expressed in, e.g., Sorcerer (for example in the last chapter from S&Sword). I recommend reading the 2nd edition manual to everyone who hasn't!]

[Ron Edwards]

Hi guys,

Despite your uncertainty, you're doing wonderfully. Let's look at the remarkable contrast between the two characters, which should be clear: both absolutely require group and specifically GM buy-in to the Color as interpreted and applied by the player for the Reward actually to work, and each does in fact provide systemic ways for that buy-in to be confirmed -- but one uses unavoidable procedural mechanical effects to do so, and one does not.

At first glance, I think one might say, "Hey, well, Freemarket is going to make the Color work, and OTE is going to let it drop like a hot rock. Good design / bad design, all done." I think that reaction would be superficial and miss the core point. As I see it, the core point is that the Color has to work (meaning serve the buy-in and development we've talked about above), and the question is whether the mechanics make that happen or less deterministically, provide a way for it to happen.

My thinking is that it's the latter. Color is an Exploration feature and hence bigger than any Technique, and System, also an Exploration feature, is - as I now see it - centered around shared-and-loved Reward if Coherence is to be found at all. Whereas the mechanics found in, for example, Freemarket are expressions and means for doing this, rather than guarantees for it.

If the OTE game were to find its own expressions and means for doing it, which aren't in the rulebook but which Markus has ably described - e.g., treating the sheet as a Sorcerer character diagram - then it would be just as functional as the Freemarket game, full stop. Conversely, if the Freemarket game were to become (for instance) utterly wrapped up with Flow-stealing and Flow-defending conflict, then all those mechanics would become trivial and un-Rewarding relative to this character (and boy can I see that happening, unfortunately, if the group appreciation for the character's Color doesn't happen).

Oh yeah - check me on this diagram. Am I missing anything?

Here are my notions about my character. This game is built on Experience Points, awarded for very specific things which apply to my guy as follows.

1. Delivering bad guys to the authorities is flat out. Fuck the authorities; if they were worth anything, the banksters would be in prison, specifically the bad kind.

2. Doing Willpower damage - no way. He doesn't do any in the absence of Mortality damage.

3. Doing Mortality damage - now we're talking! The exchange rate is worse than for Willpower damage, but that's fine - it just means doing more of it, and I'm OK with that.

4. Using Aptitudes - beautiful! His Aptitudes are specifically built to establish his plans and actions. I'll be using them all the time and raking in the Experience for it.

5. Legwork - whoa, what's this? I get hundreds of Experience points for simply putting effort into my character's proactivity and investigations? Holy Crow! This will earn me exponentially more points than any of the other things.

So what do I do with the points? The good news is that getting to a new Grade doesn't require that many points, although one's exchange rate drops a bit with each Grade. At 200 points, I'm at Grade 2, which if I'm reading #4 right, will be really soon.

In previous posts, I got a little mixed up about Levels, which is a mechanics term applied to Powers and other sheet components, and Grades, which is like character levels in D&D. So this is about making to Grade 2.

Upon doing so, I can spend all and only the points which got me there, banking the excess for getting to the next Grade. So, 200 points to spend - which is a lot! I can't exceed the levels-per-grade constraint listed for each Power or Skill, but I don't think 200 points has much chance to do that anyway. What will I spend them on?

At this stage it will be seriously reactive, as I will have probably learned the hard way what a shotgun can do to my character. One bit of bad news is that Gizmos can't be improved with experience points, so if I want better armor, I basically have to junk the old set. And I can't buy wholly new Powers at this point, not until 5th grade. Without going into major point-scribbling yet (maybe in a few posts), at this and at each grade to come before the fifth, I'll clearly be adjusting effectiveness and defense details against whatever threats seem to have cropped up and remain pending.

But I also think Reward in this game is only partly about character improvement, and in fact, the improvement isn't even the main part, being more about merely being able to continue playing. The main part has got to be about the in-fiction Positioning: relationships of all kinds, new priorities, possibly adjusted Flaws, and even my character's impact on the setting. All of this is more important than in other games because what's emerged, i.e. of this type, is effectively all the GM has to work with; he has no overriding plot or decided-upon climax we're supposed to get to.

What I'm seeing is that the Color buy-in issues, my hopes and fears from the earlier post, are really the make-or-break issue for this character and for enjoyment of this game in general. Everything - system, specific adventure prep details, scenes and their outcomes, interaction among characters, points and damage - becomes subordinated to it, or the reward mechanics will be useless in the absence of Reward.

Best, Ron

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

Oh yeah - check me on this diagram. Am I missing anything?

I think it would be worth adding a note (perhaps inside the Flow box) about starting Flow, and how that's determined. In the early game, the difference between 5 and 10 Flow can be huge, and that's all about character creation choices. If I don't have the Flow to do what I want early on, I go do something else, and as the game snowballs that may end up being a big influence on who the character turns out to be.

[davide.losito]

Show us some of this in action, mechanically. Imagine that you've played the character enough so some changes get going on the character sheet, but only just enough so that the decisions about the character might be a little different than they were at the start. For example, for a D&D character like Lord Hyrax's son, whom I mentioned above, level him up one time.
In pure mechanics terms, what numbers or descriptive terms change? What numbers must change? How are any of these numbers related to Currency issues of initial character creation?
One special question is: what is contingent about those changes, if anything? On what?

There is this row on the sheet, that is divided in two, just above the abilities.
It shows how many dots Chirs has in "You Control" and how many in "Controls You".
This is the place in which we see how Chris' Struggle Within scenes are resolved, with a specific mechanic and a specific Flashback that explore the life of our hero from the third creation scene, up to the time the current story starts.
Through this Flashbacks, which Chris actually remember in current time and try to resolve, just like you solve unsolved psychological knots of your youth, Chris let one of his half take a step further.
Once the new dot is acquired, in either one half or the other, Chris can also improve one ability of the appropriate side of 1 dot, up to a maximum equal the total dots in "You Control" or "Controls You".
This line of dots also show how far the character is from "choosing a side", and definitely become a super-hero in control of his powers and his new life and role, or a super-destructor completely overcome by rage.
Each step further is a step more towards understanding or power, but it's a step more toward the end-game.

Finally, and also key: any changes in Positioning!! How are the character's circumstances and relationships different? What happens in play to make that happen? Who does it? How formal or mechanized is it, in terms of the character sheet? I realize that this could only truly be answered through play, but go ahead and imagine what it might or could be.

Well, NPCs may die.
Part of the GM role in Dawn of a New Tomorrow is pressing the character's relatives and friends in order to make him chose whether to use those new powers (and risk the loss of control) or see those relatives and friends dying or being hurt.
Then, there are the characters the player brought into play with the three creation scenes.
They may come back later in the current story, and they will be used for sure in the Flashback scenes (it is part of the rules).
I din't put any specific mechanic dealing with or managing positioning, because I prefer to let changes emerge from the game.
For example... what will Chris do when he knows his former wife is now part of the Population Front for the New Order?
This is a task for the GM, to put the right bang at the right moment.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi everyone,

A quick for note for Davide: when I say mechanics, that can be any formal instruction. So that means your Flashback rules, for example, are Positioning mechanics. "Mechanic" doesn't have to be a number. And as far as I'm concerned, making it a number doesn't mean it wouldn't or couldn't emerge from play anyway.

Well, I need to do my part and upgrade my guy for real with 200 points, so you can look forward to seeing new sheets soon. I also have to 'fess up that I broke the rules in the first place; somehow I missed the paragraph in the description of Contact! which said you can't apply it to naked Fist Offense, but must use a Gizmo. I have no idea why; that strikes me as an annoying rule. If I went back and revised him to be rules-compliant, I guess I would have taken Blast instead, which wouldn't have changed the points spent, so I won't bother much.

Anyway, spending the points needs to be all about the Stats, for sure. Especially looking at the example character, who even taking into account that he's an utter Mary Sue built on the one broken Race (Replicant), is so far beyond my guy in combat effectiveness that it's not even funny.

(I notice that most of us built characters with major glass jaws. I wonder why? Is there something inherently not very bad-ass about the picture?)

So, with 200 points, I spend them to bulk up Vigor and number of actions, i.e., on Brawn, Agility, and Willpwer. I can even them out to 180 each. I suspect that's what everyone does at this point unless they built toward those ends at the outset. The only other thing I'd consider, thus reducing those values, would be if his Armour had proven to be worthless. Let's pretend that Luck, Cheating Fate, and that level of Armour had served him well enough, though.

You'll notice I'm not talking much about what I presume might have happened in play. That's because what happened in play has mechanically exactly zero to do with how I do this; I can spend how I want as long as I don't violate levels-per-grade or race/class constraints. This is not at all the same as in Freemarket, My Life with Master, or Dawn of a New Tomorrow, all of which see numbers changing on the sheet as a direct feature of outcomes in play. Nathan, how does it work in Aberrant? I mean, aside from choosing to buy up defense against X because you got hit hard with X - does improving the character have anything to do with what happened in play, mechanically?

Everyone, please post the revised version of your sheet. Also, Hans, you should really be including the MRCZ sheet all the way through this.

One last thought: the OTE setting and about the HGD/DDD setting have a lot in common, even with the deliberately over-the-top and fictional location of the former. My point is that in each case, we never see it all; we see only the profile/subset that the characters encounter, and as long as the GM isn't trying to do travelogue play - which in HGD/DDD is explicitly not the point, and which Markus has effectively stated isn't his GM's priority - then we can consider the Situation's effective sub-Setting rather than the textual everything-in-there Setting. So when I talk about impact on the setting, that degree or level is what I'm talking about.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other characters developed a bit for this step!

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

I just realized that maybe I haven't been clear that I want you do make the changes and show us the revised sheet. Whatever you have to assume or make up about in-play events or what the GM does, do it.

Best, Ron

[ndpaoletta]

David: the dollar sign is secondary, stylistic to the point of being a mere personal affection; hard to tie into the two ways the character seems aimed - team member or target for factions' exploitation - and doing so has a lot to do with the factions-context the other players and the GM bring to the game.

One interesting point here - the "stylistic to the point of being a mere personal affection" is almost a meta-level commentary on the nature of the Aberrant world. It is (at least when I run/play it) hyper-branded and hyper-stylized, with the constant feeling that NOTHING means what it's supposed to mean. Kind of a glimpse of the game's future/our present in some ways. But I digress.

In pure mechanics terms, what numbers or descriptive terms change? What numbers must change? How are any of these numbers related to Currency issues of initial character creation?

So, like all (IIRC) White Wolf games of the period, you get a variable amount of experience points per unit of time, and save them up until you can afford to spend them on improving various stats at various usurous exchange rates. The actual text says you get XP "at the end of the story," which is ill-defined as "maybe lasting more than one session". In practice, I always assigned (and received) XP at the end of each session of play, with the "story" being an arc taking 5-10 sessions to play out. There's 7 categories, each worth 1 point if you "fulfill" it, and you're not expected to fulfill all 7 every story. 1 is automatic.

I'll assign Fitch 20 XP, which seems reasonable for playing out one meaty "story" with 3-5 points awarded at the end of each session.

Let's say our first story concerned Fitch being courted by two Factions, the Teragen (post-humanist Nova supremacists) and the Aberrants (quasi-anarchic group devoted to "outing" the real story of what governments and corporations are doing to control the Nova populace). He managed to navigate these entreaties by cutting a deal with the N! network to move him to a position of greater decision-making power, and used that power to play off the two factions against each other. In so doing, lets say he uncovered internal N! memos revealing that they want to keep him bad, but detailing a "final option" if he ends up going rogue.

In general, you're only supposed to spend XP on things that could reasonably be expected to follow from the events of the game (though Quantum Powers are a gray area, cuz they could conceivably come from random quantum fluctuations or whatever, internal to the character).

Let's say that Fitch barely survived some physical confrontations, so I want to invest in some kind of protective power. Other than that, I'm just sharpening up his social skills. Force Field is the most effective general-purpose protective power. It's a level 2 Quantum power, so it costs 6 XP for the first dot, and then raising it from 1 to 2 costs 5 more (current level x5). I also want to raise his Domination by 1, which costs 10 (current level x 5). That's 21 - poops, not enough XP. Thats ok, I'll spend 4 to give him another dot of Rapport (current x2), which he was rolling a lot in that game. So I've spend 15 of my 20. I'm going to save that last 5, so hopefully I'll have enough to raise Domination after the next story.

One special question is: what is contingent about those changes, if anything? On what?

Ok! So, there are a couple contingent things on the sheet. One is Backgrounds - there's an XP cost to raise backgrounds, but that's contingent on "actual roleplay...strictly through the course of the story". Basically, you can develop or raise Backgrounds in play, and then spend XP to make them stick. But then the text says "if you stumble across [gear/friends/resources] in the course of play, you don't need to spend XP on that. I've always taken an extremely liberal view of this bit, and had Backgrounds fluctuate based exclusively on the circumstances of play. So, if I were running this game, I would say that Fletch gained a dot of Contacts to his interactions with the factions, and gained a dot of Backing for N! for the deal he cut. He has full Backing with N!, which is a HUGE fictional positioning...position.

The other is Taint. You can gain new temporary Taint by botching a roll to "max out" a power, by failing a roll the recover Quantum points quickly, or having an Aberration and/or Mental Disorder that imposes tempt Taint. 10 temp Taint ticks over to 1 Permanent Taint. Also, you can buy Tainted dots with XP, like you did when you made your character. Again, in my games, I impose Taint much more strictly - first, by not bothering with temporary Taint, and by imposing it when the character does inhuman things. In this game, I'll assume we're going by the book, for the sake of illustration of why I do this. It's almost impossible for Fletch to have botched enough rolls to gain 10 temporary Taint in 3-5 sessions. Maybe he's sitting at 7 temporary Taint. Let's say he botched two maxed-out rolls (that's two points), he tried to recover quantum quickly and botched (2 more points), and I've been roleplaying him with increasing paranoia, triggering the ST to give me 1 point per session for 3 sessions.

Finally, and also key: any changes in Positioning!! How are the character's circumstances and relationships different? What happens in play to make that happen? Who does it? How formal or mechanized is it, in terms of the character sheet? I realize that this could only truly be answered through play, but go ahead and imagine what it might or could be.

I think I describe this above. The increased Background dots reflect the events of play, how he knows more people and has more backing in his corporation. The slowly increasing temporary Taint is showing that he's getting slowly more inhuman, drawing away from Baselines. Maybe he has a tighter bond with his production assistants, as they've been running interference for him the whole time. And his Contact, I'll describe as a young Teragen Nova called Charon, who seems to be able to seperate his dismissal of "mere baselines" from his appreciation for what the infrastructure they've built could do for the movement for Nova rights. Of course, Fletch has made more and more powerful enemies behind-the-scenes at N!.

[Moreno R.]

My Life with Master works fast! The numbers change almost every scene (sometimes even two numbers in the same scene), you don't play a lot of scenes before the Master die.  So, to describe John after the first gaming session would have meant showing a character sheet radically changed.  Showing the character sheet after the first few changes would have meant showing the characters after very few scenes.

After reading the first replies, I decided for the second option. I imagined the character after 3 scenes: one with Ed White where he gets ordered to do something he don't want to do, and he try to resist. He fail, and in the following scene he commits villainy. In the third scene he talks about it to Jenny, and it's a connection scene.

In the first one, the change is only in the fiction, the failed roll don't change any value on the sheet. But in positioning terms, this scene is what start the game for John: for the first time he try to contradict what Ed White tell him to do. He obviously fail (a character with zero self-loathing and reasons to use the sinceryty die at the start would have a chance, but John roll a single die vs six dice)and agree to do the evil deed.
And this mean that he is forced to try at least one roll for that villainy in the next scenes
I am not sure you agree with me that this is a change in positioning: at this time is only a potential future rebellion + a promised try at villainy. But I plan to show better the doubts in John mind caused by this scene.
Most of all, this scene show that John has some redeeming feature that make it worth playing him.

This scene depends a lot on what the GM decide about the order and the way he tell it, too: in this scene he in practice says what could begin to remove the blindfold from John about Ed. Too little, and John has really no reason to refuse, and the scene is deflated, too much and the situation become a parody. In practice I have seen that with all the material given to him at the beginning, usually the GM has no problem in coming up with something at least adequate.

I am not going into what the villainy scene would be because it would depend too much on the table, the player, all the rest of the set-up, etc: coming up with that alone doesn't seems "real" MLWM play to me. And it's not important at this time. Probably it would comport other changes in positioning, and changes in the relationship with a lot of png.
If this was a real game, I probably would have tried to use one of my favorite techniques in MLWM: having a connection scene right inside the villainy scene, with a stranger 8betrer if I can roll for it before trying the villainy). But I would need more details for this, and in any case I am going to have a connection scene after this one, so it's a scene with only the villainy roll.  Assuming I make it, the effect on the numbers on the sheet is to raise by one the Self-loathing score, from 2 to 3.

After that, In the third scene, I talk with Jenny at the diner, and go for a connection scene. I want this to end well, and my chances are not very high (1 die against 3 dice) so I would probably go very aggressively for the sincerity die. With the added benefit to cementing in the SIS the doubts John is starting to have about himself. 1d8+1d4-1 vs 3d4-3, chances are good I take 1 point of love without getting more self-loathing, and without making a mess at the diner.

At this time John begin to feel more self-loathing for himself, is beginning to think that Ed is not so much of a great guy after all, and has begin to open himself up to Jenny.  All of this is reflected in the changes in his sheet (that I will send you by email like the last one)

[Ron Edwards]

Moreno's new character sheet:

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

Everyone, please post the revised version of your sheet. Also, Hans, you should really be including the MRCZ sheet all the way through this.

Ah, OK. I'll get these up by Monday evening.

[Ron Edwards]

Here's Milton at 2nd Grade:
http://adept-press.com/wordpress/wp-content/media/milton1.pdf and http://adept-press.com/wordpress/wp-content/media/milton2.pdf

Grrr, I told the guys to make images and they made PDFs. Oh well.

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

I think that everyone has posted for Topic #2 now, and although we're still waiting for a few updated sheets, that's OK. Please do post them, and meanwhile, let's move on to ...

Topic #3: Color again, after some time and in retrospect
Re-write the character after a significant reward cycle. This means when you think the character has really paid off for you, as an instrument of play, sufficiently so that you are glad you've played so far and can look at this play-history as a unit of fully-realized fun. "You got what you came for," relative to this group, this game, and this character. In practice, some of these features probably apply at this point:

1. All the possible components of the game have had a chance to show their potential across the characters in play.

2. The character's essential components (Resources, Effectiveness, Positioning) are so altered and re-organized that play effectively must be considered a new game. For Lord Hyrax's son, we'd check him out at perhaps 10th level. For a fixed-ending game like My Life with Master, close the game, all the way through to the character's Epilogue.

It's clearly not possible to make up all the events and details of play that would lead to exactly how the character would turn out, so I'm not asking you to. If necessary, simply make up the sheet for the character at this stage without necessarily justifying every step. However, for games with incremental steps, please do the steps. For instance, for my character in this exercise, I will spend the points in the proper Grade increments as required by the rules; I won't just add them up and spend them freely.

Now for the questions. What is the Color element of the reward system in action at this scale, including both its terms and mechanics? In other words, how do you describe the character (and most likely his past) in vivid, fictional terms?

Stated in exactly those terms, what is the character's arc over a significant amount of time? Does it have a shape at all?

How do you hope Color factors into playing the character from this point forward, both in terms of what others say and what you say? What would be unsatisfying or even deal-breaking, by contrast? If the character cannot be played forward from this point, how do you hope or expect Color to factor into how you and others remember and refer to the character?

Best, Ron

[Hans Chung-Otterson]

Here we go, Ickarus' Freemarket character sheet after a couple sessions, as well as the MRCZ sheet after a couple sessions. I made up the Key ID's, Genelines, and Experiences of the other 3 MRCZ members, but left off their Interface and Long Term Memories; for the purposes of this experiment that seemed like a lot of work for little to no gain. Let me know if you think it's important, though.