[IGC] Fixing Habakkuk

[dalek_of_god]

Well, a freak May snowstorm has left me with little to do. I made it in to work today, but my students didn't. That leaves me with time to open up this particular can of worms. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some constructive changes before the IGC publication gets underway. To refresh peoples memories, my IGC entry was called Habakkuk. Mike Holmes' review pointed out some potential problems, and I'm asking for advice in fixing them.

The most significant issue in my mind was the comment that replayability is approximately zero. This needs to be fixed. I realize now that if the game centers around the maiden voyage of the Habakkuk, there would seem to be little incentive to replay it. However, if the game focus is changed so that a game session represents one mission of a Habakkuk (the shoestring armada mentioned in the opening), then hopefully replayability will increase somewhat. I've also decided that I should make the mundane, mission, and monster problems explicitly player defined. There should be only one of each per session, and the first player to assume a given master role gets to say what it is.

Mike also pointed out that the game isn't really fantasy, and that the mixed WWII/horror setting is hard to get a handle on. Of course, he's right. When all is said and done, it isn't fantasy. The source material is mostly a subset of monster-movie horror. The subset in which the characters are trapped aboard a ship with a monster. A lot of science fiction horror seems to work this way. Think Aliens. That doesn't mean that a horror-movie style is the only type of story this system could tell. If I can get the feel right, I may be able to model Moby Dick, Treasure Island or the Odyssey. This is more of a project for later though. As for the mixed genre, I know I need to add more effective color. I'm thinking of starting with the logo and character sheet, making them more WWII centric. I'll probably rename the "protagonist cards" as "dog-tags" and work up a 3x5 character sheet with two WWII dog-tag images on it. The horror side needs to be played out more. My initial inspiration was a combination of an inuit legend regarding icebergs I'd overheard on TV and the gremlin myth surrounding mysterious mechanical problems in WWII military aircraft. Or was that WWI? I think I need help here. I know the kind of feel I want, but I'm having trouble thinking of source material that others are likely to have seen. One of my inspirations for horror/WWII was the novel The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon. While searching for the title of this novel, I also discovered some references to a RPG called Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine - but I doubt that it has quite the feel I'm looking for. If anyone else knows of some evocative source material, please let me know.

The endgame is weak and ill-defined. This wasn't a criticism in the review, it's just an opinion I have. I need to make some changes so that the endgame has more fidelity to my source material. I also want to bump up the gamist aspects of the endgame. I'm thinking switching from a random roll to summing up attributes as a way of determining the final outcome. I want to take the focus off of the Dawn destiny as the sole arbiter of the endgame. My current idea is for the endgame to be intiated when the total of all destinies equals thirteen. Any protagonists with attribute totals greater than thirteen will be lost heroically. The remaining protagonist(s) with the highest score will become the survivors. Protagonists with low scores will be lost in a less than heroic manner.

There are also a few things I'd like to add to the game later (ie. after the IGC publication). If I was starting from scratch, I might remove the focus from mixed genre WWII/Horror and back up a bit to focus on the basic story type - trapped on a ship with a job to do and many mounting problems. This might force me to rename the Dawn destiny to something that wouldn't imply the session should be over in one night. I'd also add in rules for mutinies. It doesn't seem appropriate to the WWII setting, but in my source material the possibility of mutiny is a common undercurrent to the storyline. I'm not sure what these would look like, but mutiny begins with "M" so I'd probably make it another master role. (I think I'm far too fond of alliteration.)

Thanks in advance. I know I'll get some good advice, and I'll try to respond with a little more regularity than my posting history might suggest.

[Mike Holmes]

First, Sorry for missing the original posting.

Second, I think that mission variability can help with replayability, but more important is coming up with unique characters somehow. Which is diffucult given the subject material.

I'm starting to think that it might just be better as a one-shot. Consider it. A single tight play is better than three lousy ones.

Definitly going in the right direction keeping to the horror genre.

I like the idea of a more mechanical end in some ways, but, OTOH, horror endings don't always have to make the most dramatic sense. As such, I think that a player who gets the roll he wants is a winner, whether he makes the roll or not. Does that make sense? Still, if you want to tweak it, I'm sure you can find ways to tighten it up. The 13 trigger sounds good, but a playtest would sure help with knowing for sure.

Mike

[dalek_of_god]

You missed the original post? I just thought people were mulling things over carefully. Anyway, on to the points in question:

I haven't included ways to create truely unique characters at the beginning of the game, and I'm not entirely certain I'd want to. My goal is more to start out with stock characters and have them develop their own personality through the interlude process. That's why I want the salient information of that interlude to be written down. I'm not too concerned about replayability. I'm aiming for a quick, single-session game. I envision subsequent sessions as playing out either as remakes of the original session (possibly with an entirely different cast), or as sequels that share only one or two characters with the original (the survivors).

...a player who gets the roll he wants is a winner, whether he makes the roll or not.

I'm not sure I get this. At all. Sorry, I'm interpreting this statement in so many different ways I'm not sure how to respond.

My intention in moving to a trigger of 13 overall instead of Dawn at 6, and re-adjusting the survival rules was to get a more "horror movie" feel.Typically the protagonists will beat only one or two of the three classes of difficulty I've defined in the game. The other one will destroy or nearly destroy the ship leaving behind a handful of weary survivors.

As an example, in the original "Maiden Voyage of the Habakkuk" plotline I was considering the ship could successfully launch their attack by the dawn deadline, the attack could be successful, and the monster problem could be resolved. In a monster movie, it is likely that only one or two of these would be true, while the others would not. ie. The Habakkuk might miss the deadline, and fail in the planned attack but manage to defeat the monster. Alternatively, they could miss the deadline, leave the monster on-board but still manage to pull off a successful attack.

[Mike Holmes]

You missed the original post? I just thought people were mulling things over carefully.

While I do try to read as many posts as I can, the volume of material posted here has made that impossible. If, perhaps, I had no family, and my full time job was to read posts here, I might be able to, but it would limit my time to respond, you see. I do try to get an idea of each post, and use many tools to try to keep abreast of new issues - but somehow a few slip by me. So, apollogies, but, yeah, I just didn't notice. :-)

I think your PM was what made me realize you had posted. Feel free to PM me to draw my attention if you think I've missed commenting.

I haven't included ways to create truely unique characters at the beginning of the game, and I'm not entirely certain I'd want to. My goal is more to start out with stock characters and have them develop their own personality through the interlude process. That's why I want the salient information of that interlude to be written down. I'm not too concerned about replayability. I'm aiming for a quick, single-session game. I envision subsequent sessions as playing out either as remakes of the original session (possibly with an entirely different cast), or as sequels that share only one or two characters with the original (the survivors).

Excellent. I think that's the right decision for the project. Definitely include some stuff on what the different missions might involve.

...a player who gets the roll he wants is a winner, whether he makes the roll or not.

I'm not sure I get this. At all. Sorry, I'm interpreting this statement in so many different ways I'm not sure how to respond.

Sorry, not well stated. What I mean is that just being the one to have some combination of stats at the endgame that triggers anything, even a set of rolls or something, could be considered a victory. Even if the rolls in question end up with dead characters, or whatever. Victory would be driving to endgame first, not in getting a certain endgame result. Does that make more sense?

My intention in moving to a trigger of 13 overall instead of Dawn at 6, and re-adjusting the survival rules was to get a more "horror movie" feel.Typically the protagonists will beat only one or two of the three classes of difficulty I've defined in the game. The other one will destroy or nearly destroy the ship leaving behind a handful of weary survivors.

With this scenario, for example, perhaps the largest contributor to the total of 13 would be the winner.

Mike

[dalek_of_god]

I think I understand your point about victory now. You're right that it shouldn't matter which characters survive so long as the players feel they've made a significant contribution to the game. Making the largest contributor to Destiny 13 the winner would imply recording contributions on a per-player basis. (Not necessarily per-character, as those could change hands over the course of the game.) I'm not sure this is necessary. I think that having three endgame conditions (dead hero, survivor, dead) allows for players to try to reach certain goals. A perfunctory death is more likely for players trying to reach the survivor condition, but dead heroes cannot be carried over into a sequel game.

Another modification I plan to make is to allow cameos to have an effect on the success or failure of an interlude. I'd allow each player having a cameo to choose sides for (+) or against (-) the player in control. The resulting bonus or penalty would be applied to the resolution roll. My intention with this rule is to model the sort of rivalry typically shown in the movies I'm using for inspiration. Before character death becomes likely during the challenge phase rivalries should be common. Once the possibility of death allows for revenge by the twarted player, rivalries should drop off and meddlesome characters should start to die. Actually, if characters with high stats die heroically, this could also work toward modelling reluctant heroes.

I probably shouldn't make many more rules alterations. I need to focus on adding description, color, and examples to the game text. That and beg, borrow, or steal some playtesters.

[Mike Holmes]

That last post all sounds perfect to me. I really like the idea for how interludes affect things.

Mike

[dalek_of_god]

Well, I've finally gotten around to making a few changes. The revised version of Habakkuk is available at a geocities site. Not the best solution, I suppose, but at least that way I'm not hosting it at work. If you only want to see the end results, just download the PDF. The other files are basically redundant.

I know there are probably changes I could make that would tighten up the text and improve the overall flow, but this document has all the rule modifications I wanted to add and adds some examples of Mundane, Mission, and Monster threats. (I've also changed Pykecrete to Pykrete since that spelling is a little more common in the online references I've been able to find.)

I guess I just need to find some way of playtesting this thing now ...