Ember First Draft!

[JohnG]

Ok so my playtester hunt in the connections forum has not gotten much, only one response so far.  I am now posting the Ember premise to first thoughts to see if perhaps I can drum up a bit more interest in testing it and to get some opinions on the world and such.

In the beginning one goddess created the world and all that lived upon it, her name has been lost to the ages, she was betrayed by her own children and enslaved, her power used by four powerful wizards to elevate themselves to godhood.  Thus did they forge their own creations, each selecting one of the races of Ember to be their servants.

Ranick, their leader and self-appointed God-King, chose men and commanded them to build and guard the temples of the gods.  Men built and operated all temples, whether they be to Ranick or one of the other Gods.  Theirs was the largest and most powerful kingdom of all the mortal races.

Asheys, the god of life, chose the Oubri and commanded them to nurture all life.  The Oubri, a race of catmen, became the primary druids and rangers of the world.  Their lands existed to the South in a vast jungle and they ventured out as midwives and healers and other such professions to nurture and protect life.

Edenia, Goddess of Knowledge, chose the T'jal and commanded them to secure all knowledge and keep the peace between the races.  They became scholars and diplomats, their city-states in the Western deserts becoming the primary centers of education, diplomacy, and trade.

Dakren, God of Death, chose the Sulvai and commanded them to shepherd the living to him as they died.  Venturing out from their frozen island to the North the Sulvai became executioners, undertakers, and the directors of funerary rights.

A vast war broke out, the barbaric lizardmen and ratmen banded their varied tribes together and attacked the lands of men in the name of their own gods that all assumed only existed in the imaginations of the savages.  The human king, Neville Dawnbreak, rallied his army and defended his lands but the enemy was too great and soon the beastmen had brought war and death to all the civilized races.

Armies marched and brave heroes sought the means to bring the conflict to an end.  Unfortunately the enemy was vast and traitors appeared among the civilized races and sought to take advantage of the situation.  Among men, greed drove the more powerful lords to revolt and turn their armies against their king, and among the T'jal the Chancellor of their most powerful city state made deals with the enemy to keep the war away from their lands.

It was after the exposure of the T'jal chancellor that the truth became clear, the false gods of the beastmen were the same gods that the civilized races themselves were worshipping.  The fiends manipulated the mortal races for their own sick amusement and Dakren grew fat from devouring the souls of the dead.  A handful of heroes, among them several people who later became leaders to their people, found the enslaved goddess and set her free the only way they could.  With no way to set her free she begged them to take her life and free Ember from the power of the false gods.

As she died so did her power and the false gods became mortals once more, the races of Ember turned on their manipulators and destroyed them all.  As Ranick died he set the land ablaze with the last of his power, cursing the world to be covered in ash.  Edenia destroyed all the knowledge of the T'jal and released magic from the laws that governed it, making the use of magic a dangerous and unpredictable practice.  Asherys cursed life to corruption and disease, and only the Sulvai know what Dakren did.  Thus began the Age of Devastation.

All would have been lost for the world if the Remnants had not been built by the Sulvai.  Remnants are powerful magical items crafted from the life force of the slain goddess, they are able to tame the chaos and hold back the curses of the gods within a certain radius around themselves.  The first Remnants were used to create the human kingdom of Haven, built from the ashes of King Neville Dawnbreak's lands by a young hero turned King named Saben.  Other nobles of the Dawnbreak kingdom also sought to build their own much smaller kingdoms, some were granted a remnant of their own, others who betrayed King Neville turned to barbarism and savagery as they were cast out.

The Oubri became the Ashen Claw, overwhelmed by the ruin they had brought upon the living things they had protected for so long they used the Remnants the Sulvai granted to them to restore a small part of their jungle.  Soon after they retreated into their lands and largely became isolationists and near-zealots in their quest to restore the natural world.  Their Elders lead the Tribes while The Circle, a group of dangerously powerful and paranoid druids, do absolutely anything they must to protect the Ashen Claw jungles.  The Circle has developed a form of magic that affects the natural world, their Druids sacrifice their own bodies to cast spells without the usual risks.

The T'jal fell to civil war that continues today, each of them competing viciously for their lost knowledge and to bring the other city-states under their control.  The scholars and educators have become thieves and scoundrels, doing anything they possible can to gain superiority and uncover valuable artifacts and ruins.

The Sulvai retreated to their frozen island for some time until they emerged with the Remnants with their Republic reformed.  From that point forward their agenda has been unknown, and their aging mysteriously stalled.  Their Necromantic magic seems unaffected by Edenia's curse and their army consists almost entirely of the fallen warriors of their enemy, resurrected and sustained artificially by Sulvai magic.  They are however unable to use any other kind of magic.  The division caused by their Remnants disgusted the Sulvai and they have since refused to create any more.

The world has fallen to chaos, factions within all of the races struggle for control of the Remnants so that their people can live in safety or to force others under their sway.  Magic runs wild and unchecked sometimes erupting into spectacular arcane storms that devastate miles and miles of land, and those who seek to use it risk unleashing these storms with the smallest error.  Once mundane and peaceful animals are now twisted and crazed, the curse of Asherys making them into fiendish beasts.  Still there is hope, there are leaders who seek peace, adventurers seek out ancient ruins for their secrets in the hopes one may hold the path to Ember's salvation. 

This is the world the players will enjoy in my game, the four races in the intro have been joined by the following.

Hungry Dead: Revived and kept alive by the magic of the Sulvai, they live in exchange for service to the Sulvai for a pre-determined amount of time.  Upon completion of their contract they can either return to full life and be on their way, or they can continue their service to the Sulvai and become a full citizen of the Republic.

Wasteborn: The corruption of Asherys' curse twisted the first generation of those born in the wastes.  Their skin is the same color as the ash on the ground and many of them were deformed and driven mad by the curse.  They have formed tribes in the waste, their bodies are immune to the curse allowing them to survive on the plants and animals without fear of disease or corruption.  Somehow their condition has also made them completely immune to magic, they cannot be directly affected by it or use it in any way.  Some of the tribes have maintained their sanity and simply wish to live, the rest have become bands of savages and raiders who seek to destroy without reason.

Magic has no laws to control its ebbs and flows, running rampant across the world and very dangerous to attempt to wield unless a Remnant is nearby.

There's plenty of opportunity for politics, exploration, intrigue, and then good old fashioned sword swinging ouch time.  This is kind of the cliff's notes version but I hope it get some people's interest, I look forward to hearing what you all think.

[Ken]

Hey-

In this forum, you'd probably have more luck (or at least, as much luck) enticing people to check out your game by sharing mechanical features of your system than the setting. Just a thought. Are there any specific mechanics that you're unsure of; and hope to see in action during playtest? Any innovations in your game you are dying to see work?

I'm playtesting now, and its been a real eye-opening experience as far as calibrating rules and adjusting mechanics

Good luck, and take care,

Ken

[JohnG]

Thanks for the advice but honestly I'm not overly concerned about the system right now, I can test my system in any setting.  At this point I'm trying to determine the appeal of the setting that I'm closest to making an attempt at publishing.  That being said if setting takes a backseat to system in discussions here than I suppose I'll post my rough system concept.

First we get our deck of playing cards. What? Playing cards?! Yes, playing cards. This is a diceless roleplaying system, we will instead be using a deck of playing cards to resolve any contest or skill use! Weird right? Trust me though it works in my head, we'll see how it works in practice.

So let's say you want to pick a lock or something, your opponent is the GM in this case. He determines the difficulty of your action, so in this case he decides how hard the lock is to pick. The difficulty is the number of cards that the GM draws and the number he is allowed to play against you. Difficulty can range from 1-6 typically but can go as high as 10 if you're trying something ri-damn-diculously hard to do.

You now draw a number of cards equal to the attribute needed for the test, for a lockpick it would be agility.  (The attributes are Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, Spirit, and Charisma.) So let's say Jim has an agility of 3 and he wants to pick a lock, he would draw 3 cards from his deck.

Next comes your skill needed for the test, for lockpick you use lockpick. So let's say Jim has 2 in lockpick, now he has 3 cards in his hand and is able to play 2 of them.

Jim now places two cards on the table, the GM has set the difficulty at 4 so he has 4 cards in his hand and can play, at most, 4. Luckily for Jim the GM can only play as many cards as the PC is allowed to play himself.

Jim plays a 9 and a 6, the GM plays a 7 and a 7. Jim wins one exchange but the GM also one won exchange so they're tied. What now? Add up the total value of the played cards, Jim played a value of 15 and the GM played a value of 14, Jim wins.

Difficult? Nope, we want the system to be simple and easy so we can focus on roleplay here.

PC vs PC/NPC tests work in a similar fashion. Both participants draw a number of cards equal to the attribute needed for the test, and are allowed a max number of exchanges based on their skill rank. The test is determined the same way, no more exchanges than the participant with the least amount allowed, ties broken by value of all cards played.

Skill Ranks in Tests: If you have no ranks in a skill you are allowed one exchange to try and succeed anyways, but draw one less card. (Special note: if your attribute is 1 you can still draw and play one card, you're already looking at a pretty slim margin of success anyways so why be penalized further?)

0 Ranks: One exchange, -1 draw to minimum of zero
1 Rank: One exchange, normal draw
2 Ranks: Two exchanges
3 Ranks: Three exchanges
4 Ranks: Four exchanges
5 Ranks: Five exchanges
6 Ranks: Six Exchanges

Cards: Any number card's value is equal to the number on it, simple as that. Spade>Heart>Diamond>Club, so if you and your opponent play two 9s and yours is a spade and his is a club you win the exchange.

Face Cards may actually be held by a player until they need them and don't need to be discarded at the end of the exchange. A Jack gives you a +1 to any single exchange, Queen +2, King +3.  Think of them as that little boost of adrenaline or inspiration that a person sometimes gets.

If you draw a Red Joker you play it immediately and critically succeed.  Both play Red Joker's, resolve the conflict normally.  (GM only uses Red Joker in an NPC/PC exchange, not in a difficulty/PC exchange)

If you draw a Black Joker you play it immediately and critically fail.  Both play Black Joker's, resolve the conflict normally.  (GM only uses Black Joker in a PC/NPC exchange, not in a difficulty/PC exchange.)

At the end of any exchange you discard all the cards you drew, whether you played them or not. They remain in your discard pile until the deck is empty or the GM ends a scene/session and advises everyone to reshuffle.

That's the bare bones mechanic, I wanted to shy away from dice because I want people to be able to play my games with as little prep as possible.  Anyone can get a deck of cards cheap and I don't know about you but my budget suffers from the cost of dice lol!

[dindenver]

Hi!
  RE: the setting. You keep saying magic is dangerous to wield, what does that mean exactly?
  Is there a reason you want to limit magic? Is it really that much more powerful than a guy with a backpack full of adventure gear? I always worry when designers try and limit magic. I mean a warrior-type can swing his sword all day, but a spell-slinger can only use his skill 1-10 times a day?
  Just my 2 cents. I like how the "bad" guys are really good guys and that the most noble of all are the most wicked, good setting idea!

[wild_card2007]

Hi Strong,

I like your background/premise, I think it has a lot of potential in terms of plot and roleplay.  The mechanic looks easy to learn and quick to play.  I like your use of face cards for that extra boost (or luck or whatever).  A couple things popped into my head as I was reading:

First... if you're gonna do catpeople, please avoid the stereotypes and archtypes.  There are too many generic cat-races out there.  Come up with a unique twist!  I'm probably a little sour on this, I guess I've seen too many copy-cat kitty-cats out there.

You'll need a way to determine how exchanges are handled.  Let's say I play 6, 8 and you play 7, 9.  There are two ways this can be played: 6v7 8v9 or 6v9 8v7.  The first gives you two wins, the second gives each of us a win.  How do you determine which way to play it?  I'd say give the player control of how the cards are matched to create exchanges.

I think some of your players may wind up with a lot of face cards in their hand.  Some players will hoard cards, saving them for that critical moment.  Others will play them as they get them.  Ultimately, it's a resource management decision on the player's part; but the GM can influence that by putting the party into a tough spot.

Here's another idea for a mechanic that occurred to me.  Player and GM draw cards equal to attribute+skill (or equal to difficulty for unopposed actions, as the lockpicking example).  Each plays one card.  Whoever wins the exchange plays another card.  As long as the card they play is higher than the opponent's card, they can continue to play cards.  If their card is lower than or equal to the opponent's card, the opponent then gets to play cards.  This continues until someone runs out of cards.  Whoever has the most cards on the table wins, if both have the same number of cards down add the values.  So, using Jim's lockpicking attempt, Jim has 5 cards (agility 3 + lockpicking 2) to play and the GM has 4 cards (difficulty 4).  Jim plays a 9 and the GM a 7.  Jim wins, and he plays a 6.  That's lower than the 7, so now the GM goes.  The GM plays another 7 and then a 4.  Jim plays another 6 and a 5, and then a 1.  No more cards are played, as Jim is out.  He managed to lay down all 5 of his cards, the GM played 3, so Jim wins by 2.  At this point Jim can elect to play a face card, regardless of the current outcome of the played cards. 

Obviously the back-and-forth nature increases handling time a bit, and it may not add much benefit.  I'm sure there are quite a few variations on the one-card-at-a-time theme, if you like the idea but not the specific mechanic I described.

Thomas

[JohnG]

Thanks for the comments, let me address them as best I can with the limited time I have right now lol.

Magic: It is dangerous because unless there's a Remnant nearby it functions under no law due to Edenia's curse.  The system will allow for essentially unlimited spellcasting, but the more spells you throw the more your chance of error will increase as well.  The thing that keeps spellcasters and warriors from being balanced unevenly is there is no class system, a Barbarian with a big axe can learn spells if he's willing to put the effort forward.  Also the chance of failure isn't brutal, it's just always there and always something to consider.  You might toss a spell and fail and take a couple points of damage, or if you screw up spectacularly you might end up blowing up 10 square miles of countryside and taking yourself with it.  I think I'm going to have something available like mini-remnants that casters use to avoid these dangers, but not get rid of them completely.

Catpeople, not really sure where else to go with them, they've always kind of been a central part of the world, I like to think their druidic nature makes them a little less generic, that and the fact that there's humans that make them look like...well..big kitties.  I'm definitely open to discussion on them though to perhaps make them a little less generic.

I'll definitely take a look at your idea for the system, but yes the player is completely in control of their card playing and doesn't see their opponent's cards until both have decided which cards to play.  Basically place them face down and then flip, face cards could be used before or after the flip to modify your exchanges.  This gives the player control of how the cards are played and speeds things up a bit since they can't consider their opponent's cards when they play their own. 


Thanks for the great input guys, keep it coming, I'll definitely use it all for my playtest!