Snow From Korea: Advanced Interface Mechanics

[Shreyas Sampat]

You can read the IGC entries this post refers to here:
Snow From Korea
Whispers In The Door

These games are designed as companions to each other, and I have, at the end of the Whispers In The Door post, rudimentary rules for playing the games in parallel. (Whispers is edited more clearly.)

I would like to extend those rules to provide a richer play structure, and simultaneously streamline the game. Here is the idea I'm working with:

A game of Snow From Korea consists of three seasons: Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Summer is twice as long as the other two seasons.

General Changes:
Play proceeds always to the left.

During a samurai's turn, any other samurai may challenge him. The player on his right has the first option to challenge, and the option moves rightward from there (in the opposite direction from the turn order). If no one challenges him, he experiences an encounter of the referee's choice. The same samurai may not challenge him twice in a row, and he may not have two succesive confrontations of the same type. Any samurai may challenge any other samurai, regardless of gender - resolve challenges of Kenjutsu against Houjutsu the same as you would any other.

Choose a number of rounds. You will play this many rounds each Season.

At the end of each season, total the differences of each character's initial Facets (from the beginning of the season) and their final Facets, and subtract this from their Resource. The resulting number is the player's score for that season.

The season of Spring is the season of growth.
The first round of turns of this season consists of introducing the samurai and samurai-ko (female samurai), and identifying what sort of relationship they have. The action of Spring is mainly that of preparing for the long court season of Summer. In Spring, each player has one Resource pool shared by his two samurai, called Honor (this replaces Snow and Secrets.)

In successive rounds, a player may have either his samurai or his samurai-ko experience a confrontation. This is the whole of his turn.

How Honor is obtained:
Whenever a samurai would gain points in a Facet, the clan gains an equal amount of Honor. (So, 2 points for a victory in kagai or mujintou no kamae, and 1 point for a victory in ariake no kamae.)

How Honor is used:
After a challenge (not an encounter!), the challenged samurai may spend Honor to raise the challenged Facet. It costs X squared points of Honor to add X points to a Facet.

Honor at the end of the season:
At the end of the season, unused Honor automatically becomes Secrets.

Summer is the season of action.
The first round of turns this season consist of the samurai departing from their homes, leaving the samurai-ko behind. These departure scenes should reveal something the samurai-ko desires, that the samurai will attempt to bring her. The action of this season is described in detail in the linked posts. In Summer, each character has his own Resource pool; samurai have Snow and samurai-ko have Secrets.

In successive rounds this season, a player's turn consists of confrontations for both of his samurai; he may play them in any order he chooses. Samurai may not challenge samurai-ko this season.

How Secrets and Snow are obtained:
Each time a samurai rolls the maximum amount of successes possible in a confrontation, his Snow score is set equal to his highest Facet score, if this will increase his Snow score.

Each time a samurai-ko rolls a maximum success, she adds her highest Facet score to her current Secrets score.

How Secrets and Snow are used:
A samurai may spend a point of Snow to reassert a confrontation. He may choose a different kamae and reroll his dice; the other participant does neither.

A samurai-ko may always redirect Facet losses to Secrets.

Communing:
As his entire turn, a player may choose to have both his samurai commune. They meditate upon their place in the world; this allows the player to convert any amount of Secrets or Snow into the other type of Resource, and transfer it to the appropriate character. (Secrets are useless to samurai; Snow is useless to samurai-ko.)

Secrets and Snow at the end on the season:
At the end of the season, Secrets convert automatically to Stores. Snow can be spent, on any Facet, in the same way as Honor can be during Spring.

Autumn is the season of endings.
The first round of turns of Autumn consists of the samurais' returns to their households. The action of this season consists mainly of samurai blustering and preparations for the coming winter. In Autumn, each player has a single Resource pool shared by both his samurai; this is called Stores.

Like in Spring, each player's turn consists of exactly one confrontation, and samurai may challenge samurai-ko freely.

How Stores are obtained:
Stores are obtained in the same way as Honor is in Spring.

How Stores are used:
I don't quite know this yet. I think that I want all samurai to be able to use Stores for either Summer effect - the reroll as well as the damage-redirection.

Stores at the end of the season:
Stores are counted in scoring just like other Resources, but don't do anything else. If you want to play successive years, assume nothing ever happens in Winter, and convert Stores automatically to Honor.

Does this all make sense? Are there obviously broken parts?

[Nathan P.]

Man, I wish I came up with this kind of stuff.

I had a question, but then I re-read the post and answered it myself, I think. So, in this structure, the player with the greatest Stores at the end of the year wins? (as opposed to greatest Snow or greatest Secrets, for the two original games, and assuming you're not playing successive years)

My only comment (assuming that I got that right), is that Stores seems an awfully un-Samurai-ish thing to win a game with. Maybe switch the names of Stores and Honor?

Anyway, you do incredible work. In case you didn't know that.

[Shreyas Sampat]

Thanks for the compliments, Nathan.

I think you're missing something important about SFK scoring, which might reveal something interesting to you - characters are rewarded for staying the same. The less you deviate from your original self, the higher your score at the end of the game. Also, your scores are calculated at the end of each season, not just the close of autumn; each phase builds on the next one.

On winning the game: Stores basically represent your clan's ability to last out the winter - it's different from Honor, Snow, and Secrets because Honor is important to the samurai family, Snow and Secrets to those that carry them, and Stores are important mostly to the peasants that you rule...samurai aren't just wandering fighters (unless they are ronin); they have feudal lordships, and all the nobless oblige that that entails. So winning the game indicates that you've done the best things possible for your family, your self, and your fief.

[Nathan P.]

*works on improving his comprehension-fu*

Right on.

I guess my only other question, then, is this: the section on Stores indicates that, at the end of each season, you note everyones appropriate score, and then move on to the next season. At the end of Autumn, you total up these scores, with highest total winning. Is this correct?

[Shreyas Sampat]

That's correct.