Feedback Requested on new game

[tomg]

I'm working on my first design.  It's a DRYH hack called Don't Take A Nap.  It was started for The Sight and Sound Design Challenge.
The full text can be found at http://tomgurg.googlepages.com/home.
Specific areas of concern or blockage are:
1. New name - do I need a new name for the game?
2. Hope point generation - I'm stuck on how to generate Hope points?
3. Does the Opposites mechanic work?  It's a cool idea but is it viable?
These are the main issues at this point.  I have not playtested yet as I don't think it is playtestable yet.
Any comments are appreciated.  Direct contact is tomgurg AT gmail DOT com
Thanks in advance,
tomg

[tomg]

Additional info...
Here is the section I have the most concern about at the moment.

Resolving Conflicts and Situations

As the story grows the players will reach decision points at which they will need to choose options.  To decide the outcome of the situation players will choose a Quality that best fits the situation and roll their Quality number of dice.  The GM rolls 3 or more dice. Additional dice may be added based on the situation.  Odd numbers are successes.  The number of successes is totaled and the one with the highest number of successes continues the story as they wish. (maybe use the FATE or DRYH mechanic of dominance)(use PDQ or FATE levels/difficulties tables)

Corruption Points

The GM can award corruption points when he wins a conflict.  Each time the player accumulates 3 corruption points a die is removed from a Quality to its Opposite.  The player chooses which Quality is affected.  As dice are moved from a Quality to its Opposite, deficits are added to the players rolls in this Quality and the player should begin role playing this change.  When one die is moved the player takes a -1 for each die rolled in that Quality.  If two dice have moved, then there is a -2 deficit.  Should all of the dice from one Quality move to its Opposite the player now has a -3 deficit to each die rolled in a situation for that Quality.  If all Quality dice are moved to the Opposites, the player has changed into his Opposite and plays that change.  Therefore a total of 12 Corruption points will be accumulated before the character changes completely into its Opposite.  As the story progresses and Corruption points increased, dice are moved from the Opposites back to the Qualities in the same manner i.e. reversing the change.  In this way the influence and chaos of FairyTaleLand is mimicked in the game.  The player potentially will play the extremes of his character and everything in between. (Is it just the character becoming weaker in that Quality?)  (Effect may be that they roll at -1 per die deficit to change the chance of success?  example: the pc encounters Little Boy Black whose horn calls the vampire cows.  The Quality needed is decided to be Courage.  However Courage is in Opposite so the pc displays cowardice.  The pc rolls his three dice for courage at a -3 deficit per die.  The GM rolls his 3 dice.  Results: pc – 5,3,2  GM – 1,4,3   now minus the deficits change the pc roll to 2,0,-1.  He has lost the encounter (GM has 2 odds vs. his one odd) but retains narration rights because he has dominance (a roll of 5) so he gets to tell how badly it went for him vs. the vampire cows.)  (This is using the dominance idea from DRYH).


Hope Points

Hope and optimism spring eternal in the hearts of our children.  Hope points will hopefully reflect these qualities.  (need a way/reason to award Hope points)  Hope points can be used by any player to add a die to a roll or remove one Corruption point.  Additionally the GM has the option of awarding Hope points for excellent role playing.  Hope points should be represented by some sort of token.

[Ken]

Hi-

1. New name - do I need a new name for the game?

While I'm not going to tell you to change the name of your project I will say that I believe titles are your first (and maybe most important) marketing tool when trying to lure players to your game. Even if you do not intend to sell your game, ask yourself if the title says anything about your game (rules, setting, etc.) and whether hearing the title invokes any thoughts in the mind of the potential player hearing it, or seeing it, for the first time (and whether these thoughts would drive them to want to play your game).

3. Does the Opposites mechanic work?  It's a cool idea but is it viable?

This kind of bothered me. I could see each quality having a negative (though not necessarily opposite counterpart). Using your Courage example, perhaps a character corrupted by Fairyland starts exhibiting a trait that could be confused with courage, like overconfidence or recklessness. The change may not be noticeable at first, but as points slide from one quality to another the character actions may seem darker or mean-spirited. I would suggest that maybe the negative quality could be decided at the moment it created, and be germane to the incident at hand (so opposite could still work in some cases).

I'm not sure that this idea would constitute any type of penalty in rolling dice; it would just change the way the character acts. I think I would let their rolls stay the same, but for different reasons, and with different consequences. It would have some effect on character interaction, possibly. You could say that having negative traits reduces your chance of getting Hope points, or maybe increases the Hope point cost of doing something.

2. Hope point generation - I'm stuck on how to generate Hope points?

A lot of games use this type of luck currency, and its usually related to doing something that fits your characters goals or traits. I would say accomplishing an epic or extremely dramatic task would earn some hope points. I think they would either be awarded after attaining a long-term goal or adventure, or by accomplishing some truly amazing short-term feat. Its all about not losing yourself in a  twisted scary world, so any time a character can keep themselves for being swallowed up by it; this would be a pretty pivotal moment.

I answered this question out of sequence because it kind of relates to my thoughts on negative qualities. Maybe, as a character is corrupted they start to loose the tools needed to generate hope in twisted-fairy-tale-land. I don't know what type of penalty this would have; its just my first pass at your game.

Also, reading your rules & examples; I had some thoughts on using Imagination. In your example, a kid would imagine himself bigger to take on a troll. This seems a little obvious and anti-dramatic. Fairy Tales are full of trickery and lessons-learned. Maybe instead the character would use imagination to allow them to trick or trap their opponents. For example, the kids would stand on each others shoulders with a blanket over themselves and make the troll think that a bigger monster was coming up the trail. For more dramatic situations, maybe the kid finds something that would be the enemies weakness (it wasn't their weakness, until the kid imagined that it was) and that could give them a combat edge. <i.e. A kid trying to scare off the troll finds a strange red rock next to the bridge; he lifts it up to throw it, and the troll yells "No, No, Not the red rock, anything but that! You can go, just don't hit me with the red rock!"- or something like that.> Just some thoughts.

What do you think?

Ken

[tomg]

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the feedback.  I really appreciate it.  You have some very good suggestions which I will try to incorporate in some fashion.
You nailed the Opposites.  That is what I was try to accomplish with them and it just came out canted.  You straightened it out and unblocked me.  Thanks a lot.  Being story games I really wanted to emphasize that the player should begin to change the character as FairyLand corrupts them.  Your suggestion of using a twisted Quality instead of a direct opposite in most cases is exactly what I was trying to get across and couldn't articulate it properly.  It gelled in my mind as soon as I read it.  Thanks so much.  Hope points - I do see them as a reward system for good role playing and intelligent playing.  Accomplishing certain goals, being clever, etc. are the Hope point generators I am currently seeing.  Your thoughts on Imagination are very interesting.  Coming at it from your angle is a cool way to look at it.  Very worth further thoughts on my part.  That would certainly fall into the realm of Imagination while not being to 'superhero-y'.  Very nice.
All in all your comments are fantastic.  Thanks so very much for your feedback.  If anything else pops into your head please let me know. 
Later,
tomg

[tomg]

Revision: 30Oct07
Originally Corruption was meant to show the effect of staying in the Twisted FairyLand over time.  But I couldn't figure out how to do that.  Thanks to Ken's post the fog lifted and I have an idea on how to do it.  Let me know what you think.
Corruption points are generated using a standard deck of cards.  ime and the ensuing corruption on the entire party.  All face cards represent corruption over time for the entire party.  Each time a face card is flipped from the face down deck the GM gets a corruption die.    These are collected from the Hope/Imagination pool (which would start with X # of dice).  The GM uses these to add to his rolls.  Once used they are returned to the Hope/Imagination Pool. 
Alternatively, the GM would pull a die from a player's Qualities each time a face cards shows.  Mimicing the player getting weaker over time.  Don't like this as well though.  How do you decide who to pull from?  Chit bag?  Dice?
Feedback?