Luminaires(Tentative title)

[sirogit]

I wasn't quite sure if this is 100% fit for Game Design, as the game is by and large, a specific mechanic, but anywho...

The game's principlly about a different kind of conflict resoloution, instead of tracking the "Winner" of a specific conflict, the game tracks the products of the conflict, which are derived from what "Traits" a character invokes for the conflict.

Characters have pools of specificly colored D10's, specific colors which represent Traits of the character. Traits have to be dramaticly significant traits of the character that would do well at creating an aftermath, so motivational traits such as Selfishness, Compassion, Hatred, etc etc would be good. The number of traits are limited by the colors of d10's you possess, so they should be distinctive and broad.

During a conflict, you normally both roll a white d10, rolls 6 and above are a successes, most successes win(In a tie, highest number wins.) The character with the most successes settles the conflict how they wish, but with no long-term effects.

A player may wish to use a Trait of their character during a conflict which is tied to the Trait, in which case they add the color-specific d10 to their roll. For every success of those dice, a product of that trait is established in the game world as a result of that conflict. Trait dice above 6 are thrown on "the table" and trait dice below 5 are put out of the game.

"The table" is a set space easily visible to players, representive of the shifting nature of the game as the result of indivdiual conflicts. The colors of the dice on "the table" represent both concrete products of the player's actions and abstract alterations to the enviroments tone at large.

If a player's actions are in league with previously established products, such as if they use the same emotion or take advantage of the existing products or the tone of the world, then they may roll dice from the table for their conflicts.

Conflicts may be set as a character's own traits against themselves, or a character's conflict with previously established products.

Crisis is when the products have grown enough that they conflict with each other, this happens in game when two colors of dice on the table both have a die with "0" on it. To use these dice, characters have to choose a side in the conflict, and the roll will diminish one side of the Crisis.

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So, the main places I would like response from would be:

A) What games besides those immediately familiar(Universalis, The Pool) is this similar to?

B) What would you use this for?

C) How to make the mechanics sleeker?

D) Would you need an example to understand what I'm going for?

[Shreyas Sampat]

d) I'm intrigued by this idea, but I'm not sure at all how it works. Let me muse through it a bit...

You can introduce a relevant Trait into a conflict. Once it's been introduced, other characters may exhibit that same Trait and get the same bonus from it, even if they don't, game-mechanically, have that Trait. The value displayed on a die after it is rolled determines whether a) it has an effect and stays on the table or b) it has no effect and is detabled.

I imagine this will generate very interesting patterns of characters turning about an opponent's own strengths against them, or trying to arrange things so that they can reuse their Trait dice. Am I getting all this right?

I think an example of play would clear this up a lot.

[sirogit]

It's morever that whenever Traits are used, they change how the conflict is resolved and thereby, alter the present environment.

Someone using Anger for an impassioned killing tallies up Anger dice on "The table", generates "Enraged Witnesses" as products , creating an atompshere of animosity and violence.

Someone that kills for Love puts Love dice on the table, generates "Saved lover" as a product, and creates an atompshere of compassion and generosity.

If someone used both Triats in the same fight, and both Traits rolled a 0 when they're put on "the table", than that means that the Enraged Witnesses and the Saved Lover come into conflict, perhaps by the Saved Lover throwing themselves at the Enraged Witnesses to save the person that saved them.

[Shreyas Sampat]

Okay, I'm still not getting it. Do the dice placed on the table represent the entity that a trait introduces, or are they in addition to them?

I just feel like there's more to this system than you're saying, and without some much more rigorous, step-by-step description of what's going on, either by EoP or by rewording and clarifying the rules, it's not going to be very easy to discuss.

[Mike Holmes]

What Shreyas said. :-)

Mike

[sirogit]

Whoah, sorry about the lack of reply, didn't think there was any additional comments on this.

Here's a re-write of the rules.
Characters:
Standard roleplaying arrangement, players make up a character that they would like to portray and give them a brief but intereasting backstory. Lumainaires is very scant on mechanical character definition however, with every character being only represented by their Trait dice.

Trait Dice:
Trait dice represent a Character's resources that they may use in a conflict. Luminaires characters have a specific kind of resources, limitations on what can be a Trait:

1) It has to be some sort of meaningfull facet of their personality.

2) It must breed itself in it's own application; Love breeds love, Greed breeds greed, Dutifullness breeds Dutifullness, Being goods with Guns doesn't breed Being good with guns.

There are some grey areas with this, such as Insanity. Have the group think about those for awhile.

During the character creation session, the players decides which Traits their characters have in what amounts of dice(Each player may have ten dice in total), and the group attaches specific colors to the traits.

Example:
One of my players, Jim, has decided that this character is a young member of the military, striving to undo the shame that was brought on his family when his grandfather deserted a war. He is nonetheless resentfull of the nobility. He has 4 dice in Anger, 3 dice in Shame, 2 dice in Conviction and 1 die in Regret.

The other player, Jack, wants to play a brother of Jim's character, who peacefully accepted his outcast status and moved to a different city to become a priest. He has 6 dice in Compassion, 3 dice in Regret, and 1 die in Shame.

So the key traits to be played in this game are going to be Anger, Shame, Conviction, Regret and Compassion, and they're attached to colors as so:

Anger = Red
Shame = Black
Conviction = Orange
Regret = Blue
Compassion = Purple

So Jim takes 4 red, 3 black, 2 orange and 1 blue dice to his pool.
Jack takes 6 purple, 3 Blue and 1 black dice to his pool.

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Conflict:

During conflict, each side decides how many trait dice to take out of their pool to roll against their opponenet. The trait must be relevant to the conflict at hand or the employed method of the character.

Example:
Jim's character has chased the remnants of an enemy troop into a cathedral, it happens to be his brother, Jack's character's cathedral, and Jack's character appears to urge him to drop his weapon and give these men mercy.

A conflict is declared and they both add Trait dice to their side. Jim is going to be sneering at his brother, announcing that he is a soldier. they are his enemy, and that he has no mercy for someone with a more fortunate life than himself. Jim uses 1 Duty die and 3 Anger dice in this conflict.

Jack's character is going to approach his brother softly, and exclaim that hurting others will not heal the pain inside of him. He uses 3 compassion dice for this conflict.

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Resoloution:
After trait dice are alotted for each side, each side rolls their dice and keep the dice which read 6-0 as successes, and put the dice which read 1-5 back in their pool.

The side with the most total successes is the winner of that immediate conflict, and decides how the immediate conflict resolves.

But conflict has more than temporary consequences. Every trait that is used successfully in conflict alters the environment. Whomover used the dice in that conflict narrates how thier successfull Trait dice created a Result.

Results are the long-standing effects of the Traits used in conflicts. They may be represented in game as a variety of things, such as special objects that were imbued with meaning through in-game actions, or a vague tally of impending consequences.

All dice that came up successfull in a conflict are Results and put into a special playing area, here after called "The Table". "The Table" informs the players of what Results exist at this time.

The number and color of dice on "The Table" illutsrate the mood of the game. If there are lots of Red Anger dice on "The Table", then the game is angry and bloody. If there are lots of Blue Regret dice on "The table", then the game takes a sombre tone.

Example:
Jim rolls his dice.
His Duty die turns up 2
His anger dice turn up 4, 2, 6, one success.

Jack rolls his dice:
His Compassion dice turn up 5, 6, 8, two successes.

This means that the conflict is narrated as Jack's character immediately winning it, a small Result of anger being created by Jim's character and a larger Result of compassion being created by Jack's character.

The two players and I decide to narrate the conflict like this: Jim's character responds harhsly to what he percieves as Jack's character's condecenscion, and punches him squarely in the jaw, leaving a noticable scar. That scar is the Result of his anger(The one red die on the table.)

Jim's character suddenly backs off, saying that he lost control and will now leave Jack's character and the enemies he was chasing alone. Jack's character picks himself off of the floor and painfully belts out that he forgives Jim's character and that he will send a letter to the bishop back home praising Jim's dutifullness and honor as a soldier. That letter, even though it hasn't been written yet, is the Result of his Compassion(The two purple dice on the table.)

Jim puts the dice that did not turn up successes back into his pool, as does Jack.

More to follow.

[sirogit]

Future conflicts and dice on "The Table"

Characters may be influenced and empowered just as strongly by their enviromnet and history, the dice that are on "The Table", as much as their innate personalities, the dice in thier pool.

During another conflict, a character may use dice that have put on "The Table" by anybody as dice that they themselves have in their pool.
If the specific Trait is appropiate to a conflict, than they mad add the dice from the table to the dice they are rolling.

No matter the result of the dice used from the table, they stay on the table.

Example:

The dice on the table are a red(Anger) 8, a blue(Compassion) 0 and another blue 9.

While walking out of the cathedral, Jim's character has been stopped by some of his fellow soldiers, asking where the enemy soldiers have gone. Jim says his character thinks back to the promise his brother gave him of a letter that would grant him mercy, and Jim's character thinks to extend that mercy.

He tells his fellow soldiers with a lightened heart and a straight eye that they should attend to finding another battle to enter, and that if their foes run to sanctuary we should let them have that shelter. He's using his Duty die and using the previously created Result, 2 purple(Compassion) dice.

As the other side isn't using any  Traits, the GM rolls one white d8 to represent the other soldier's reluctance to not chase after the enemy.

Jim gets:
Duty dice: 3
Compassion dice: 6, 2 one success

Oppoistsion:
White d8: 5

Jim wins this momentary conflict and the soldiers are moved enough that they quietly accept his command, but no further Results are created.

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Inner Conflict, Environmental Conflict, Crises:

There are three special kinds of conflict in Luminaires, which follow the same basic rules as standard conflict, but are against unique elements.

Inner Conflict is when character's Traits play against each other, it usually comprises of a character having an inner struggle which results in action based or one or possibly both traits. The players roll both of their own traits that they put down for a conflict and narrate any results as normal.

Environmental Conflict occurs when the Results of previous actions come into conflict with the character. This is just like a standard conflict, except one side is solely composed of dice from The Table.

Crisis occurs when two growing forces come into unavoidable conflict and must destroy each other. This happens when two dice of different color on the table both read "0". Its represented in game by whatever in-game objects that the dice represent coming into conflict with each other.

During a scene in which the crisis is played, players are either on one side of the Crisis are univolved. If they choose one side, they add their appropiate traits, and roll dice including every dice of the crisis on their side. The other side rolls similarly, and for every success on one side, remove one of the other dice that read "0" .

Example:

As Jim's character walks out in the city streets, he questions himself if this violent path he's leading is taking him out of the funk he was born with or dragging him further down it. Its an inner conflict, Jim using one side of his 1 regret die and the 2 compassion dice from the table, against his own 3 anger dice.

Jim's roll:
2 Compassion dice: 5, 8, one success
1 Regret die: 2

3 anger dice:9, 9, 2, two success

Jim's character resolves himself to his anger, assures himself that the pain of others is far distinct from his own pain, and makes an oath to continue a path of violence until he recieces the glory he deserves. The Oath is the Result(2 red dice), Jim has one red die in his pool now.

~

Later on, a town guard stops Jim's character, shouting that he has seen what Jim's character has done to the priest and is not willing to let Jim's character walk away. Jim's character states that he is not ashamed of what he's done and that the guard will stand down if he does not wish to be torn in two. They both rush headfirst at each other. Jim is using his one remaining anger die, as well two dice from his Oath. The guard is using the one red die from the earlier result of the priest's wound, as the wound has incited the gaurd to anger.

Jim rolls:
His anger die: 0 one success
His oath: 4, 4

Guard rolls:
One red die(The priests wound): 3

Jim's character gives him a thorough slash, enough to debilitate the guard as Jim's character passes through, Jim's character scoffs over the shoulder of the guard "Let it be known, that I give wrath freely and blind to your pitiful conscience", and so Jim's character starts a rumour for himself as a dangerous character, the name is the Result of his one red die and its put on the table.

~

Later on, do to the rerollings of dice of the Oath, the Name and the Letter, it turns out that we have a red die that reads 0 and a purple die that reads 0, meaning that the Name and the Letter are in Crisis. This is expressed in the following scene: The bishop has written back to Jack's character, pointing out the fallacy in Jack's character's arguement. How can he give a shining recomendation to such a imoral bastard?

Jack's going all out for this conflict. He's using his remaining 4 Compassion dice + the 2 Compassion dice on the board as his consideration for his brother, as well as an upwelling of his own shame and how the Bishop damns him. He's pouring of this in his response, which includes a drudging up of his family's dishonorment and a denouncement of his brother's alleged lack of conscience.

The bishop is rolling the 1 Anger die which represents this immoral name of Jim's character.

Jack rolls:
His own purple dice: 6, 6, 2, 4, two successes
His own shame dice: 2

Bishop rolls:
One red dice(Jim's Character's Name as a Dangerous man): 1

Jim persuades the Bishop to see the error of his ways, and Bishop does indeed take a kind word for Jim's character to the aristocracy (The Result of the Compassion dice is The Letter's Acceptance.)

With two successes, Jim erases the one red die that was in Crisis(Had a "0" on it), The name for himself that Jim had created for himself dissapears(Remove the red die from the table.), leaving four purple compassion dice(The letter to the Bishop and the letter's acceptance) and 3 red Anger dice(The priest's wound and the oath.). As none of the dice read "0" there is no longer a Crisis.

[Shreyas Sampat]

Traits: It seems like you have an engine here for generating some very cool and cinematic effects. Sure, taken at face value (Traits must be self-generating in the real world) the Trait system is great for social conditions of various types...but allowing yourself to reexamine and play with that restriction opens up large fields of play where things are different than they are in the real world. In many cinematic styles, for instance, it's the order of the day to "fight fire with fire".

If a die is tabled, can both sides of a coonflict claim it? If not, who's got priority?