Slime Story: teenagers hunt cute monsters for spending money

[neko ewen]

This is an idea that's been brewing for a long time, and I think I'm finally starting to figure out how to put together a game about it.

It takes place in a world basically like the present day, except ten years ago portals opened up all over the world. To us they're nothing but light and sound, but they spit out strange, cute monsters (like something out of a Korean MMO, such as Ragnarok Online or Maple Story). Most of these monsters aren't especially dangerous--though a slime could smother a sleeping child--but they're a nuisance, and they can become a problem if they're left unchecked. Different places deal with these in different ways, but this game is about teenagers who live in suburban America and hunt monsters as a hobby. They use melee weapons made by Nike and Adidas to kill monsters after school, then take the salvaged monster parts to the mall's Monster Mart (called "the Google of monster hunting" by many) to trade them in for cash or store credit.

Early on I was thinking of marrying mechanics for exploring characters' hopes and dreams to a D&D-style hack-and-slash fest, but for that setting I think it would be too grindy and repetitive. Since reading 3:16 and playing Meikyuu Kingdom at GenCon, I think the monster hunting aspect needs a more abstract combat system (perhaps with the ability to "zoom in" on more involved and dangerous battles), and concentrate more on what the characters want out of life.

My thought right now is that in the game players would set goals, stuff like "get enough money to buy a new sword," or "get Rita to go on a date with me," and try to fulfill them in, around, and through monster hunting sessions, while the GM throws some curve balls at them. The part where I'm kind of lost is how to go about giving the players mechanically interesting tools with which to pursue and portray their characters' goals. I also want this to lead to some kind of endgame, where the PCs eventually "graduate," and their monster hunting hobby must transform in some way. Because, you know, we all have to grow up eventually.

[BlissAuthority]

Neko Ewen,

This sounds like a great game on paper.

How much harm could, say, a miffed Zapsqueak ("Pika?") do to the players?  Getting "Bonked" with cosmetic damage and embarrasement?  Annoying to concerning wounds?  Life and limb?

What do thier parents think of all this?

May I suggest something similar to the Zeal / Weariness cycle to lead to the endgame?

Hope this helped,

-- Elliott Belser

[whiteknife]

An interesting concept for sure (coming from one who has played to long on Korean MMOs)
I think the idea of goals is fitting, because in such MMO's the monsters are somewhat dangerous but you are highly unlikely to die from them, even after fighting hundreds (and even if you do you'll just respawn). You could provide more danger by having the actual threat provided by the monsters ramp up as the game progresses, or by having the players desires interfere with the hunting so that it becomes dangerous.

Keep it coming!

[neko ewen]

Thanks for your comments. Here's what I came up with brainstorming over the weekend:

To create a character you pick a Class and a Clique. Class (Fighter, Ninja, Ranger, etc.) is how you fight monsters (straight-up melee, sneak attacks, missile attacks, etc.), and Clique (Average, Geek, Popular, etc.) is how you handle yourself socially (by being normal, by collecting and using arcane knowledge, by being acutely outgoing). Class determines your combat attributes (Offense and Defense), while Clique determines your social attributes (Extrovert and Introvert). When you face a simple challenge you roll a die for each attribute in the pair to see how it turns out, and role-play narrate and assign in-game effects appropriately. This is turning out to be a PTA-style fortune-in-the-middle deal, which sounds about right, but I'm not anywhere near 100% confident about it.

Characters have a Stamina track (that gets affected by physical challenges) and a Motivation track (that gets affected by social/emotional ones). Getting too low on either one would make your character unable to hunt... though I'm not sure how that should world out gameplay-wise.

My thought is that in the game characters can progress through six levels, and become more capable as they do, but also facing more powerful monsters. Once you're past 6th level, your character is ready to "graduate," and your Motivation helps determine his or her ending.

As I have it now, the monsters in Slime Story are rated as either "normal" (only really dangerous to small children and the unwary) or "dangerous." This story from the setting (which I really should've included in the first post) has a confrontation with a dangerous monster (a yellow dragon) as its climax. Dangerous monsters cause injury instead of fatigue, and often lots of it. The GM's roll on the encounter table is influenced by the characters' levels, so level 6 characters are much more likely to run into dangerous monsters than 1st level ones.

I hadn't really thought about the parents' role in all this, since the game is very focused on things that happen during and directly around monster hunting, such that you wouldn't normally have scenes of characters at home. However, there's definitely something to be had there, and I'm thinking there ought to be some kind of trait, like the R.W.P. (Relationship With Parents) from Teenagers From Outer Space, but maybe optional rather than universal. In the setting, monster hunting is one of those things you hear debated in the news a lot, and parents can have very different opinions on the matter. A lot of monster hunters spend nearly all of their hunting sessions killing slimes and animated tree stumps that can scarcely do anything to them, but every now and then there's a story in the news about some 14-year-old who was killed by a dragon. Still, if your character does actually get hurt, Monster Mart sells healing potions (derived from the leaves of stumpies) that will fix you up in seconds. (They also sell Slime Cola, which most people think tastes kind of gross, but heals a heck of a lot of fatigue).

Oh, also, characters start with two Issues, which can range from "I need money to buy a new bike" to "I want a girlfriend" to "I wish I could tell someone that I'm gay" to... wherever the players are willing to go, really. These shape what the PCs are after, and substantially affect challenges, for good or for ill. I haven't decided whether they should be numerically rated yet. I really like the idea of having this stuff interfere with battles, though I'm not sure how to implement it.

I also want to come up with some kind of system for "complex challenges," which would allow for more dramatic battles and more involved social situations that run on die rolls.

[Eero Tuovinen]

This guy always has all the best "let's smoke some peyote and watch anime" ideas.

Completely disconnected from your actual problems, what you need here is for the Monster Mart to not reward you with money, but instead with some sort of Mart Cards that are then traded in certain combinations for new Surgeon General -approved weapons, armour and home electronics. Like a CRPG, you know. The trick is that you'll also have a parallel monetary system that is simpler and more efficient, and then you're also not limited to using the Monster Mart equipment, which can be a bit to the childish side. Now you have this problem where the characters need to somehow trade their Mart Cards for cash so as to use that to buy some grown-up weapons, and hilarity ensues. Or perhaps you'll just give away your Mart Cards to somebody in exhange for their job, so you can get real money that way, so you can buy better weapons and quit... what am I even talking about? Makes about as much sense as a CRPG

You'll also need to have some sort of mandatory, expensive, unreliable and clumsy protection devices for the teenagers so their parents allow them to go out and fight monsters. Some sort of GPS-connected life vest deal that summons adults if you get injured - and it's both expensive and humiliating to be saved in such a way, and your parents might disallow monster hunting for a week after a close call like that. Of course, the characters with a suitable "bad boy" background or character class or whatever can go fight monsters without such equipment... but then you're really risking your life, even if the monsters are kinda pushovers.

And, of course: while the people think that the monsters are relatively harmless, what they don't know is that some of them have found the moist, dark places of the earth and evolved into something quite different. So instead of playing at pest extermination, the high-level character might actually have to face a real danger to the community. Something insidious, with far-ranging mind-control powers, pouring its poison to the whole town... its fault that your parents broke up... and the fact is, if you keep on playing at this monster-fighting thing, when are you going to grow up?

But no, I don't really have anything on your actual problems right now. Too busy with wrassling my way through the Gencon loot to think.

[neko ewen]

At this point I have the outline of the game in my head, but I'm not terribly confident that I'm going the right way with this.

The meat of the gameplay is a series of "challenges." A given challenge can be simple or complex, and battle or social. For a simple challenge, you roll two d20s, one for each of the two attributes for the category of challenge (attack and defense/extrovert and introvert), and based on that you figure out success or failure, and your stamina or motivation track fluctuates accordingly. If one of your character's Issues is involved, the effect on your motivation track is significantly magnified. I need to work out how complex challenges will work, but in my head they're a lot like Bringing Down the Pain from TSOY.

At the start of each session, each player comes up with a Quest for his or her character, some kind of goal to pursue, preferably one relating to an Issue. The GM adds the all-important random monsters, and one or two other things, possibly NPCs with Quests of their own.

I want the game to emphasize these teenage monster hunters trying to overcome boredom, so while I like Eero's suggestions, I'll probably use them in a toned-down form to keep it from coming off as dystopian. Hence, you can take an "Overprotective Parents" trait that has your character forced to wear a "MonsterSafe(tm)" anklet, and while you get mocked for it and hindered by it, you can in fact call for help in an emergency. (Though you could set the game in a town where there's a local law that requires all underage hunters to wear one). Likewise, I like the idea of using Monster Mart to take a jab at the craptacular trade-in treadmill that GameStop has become.

Adding the possibility of a confrontation with a Big Evil Mutant Monster that could destroy the town makes a really neat addition to the possible forms of graduation too.

Characters have Feats stemming from their Class and Clique. A Jock gets stuff like "Second Wind," while a Geek can have "Monster Encyclopedia" and "Flashmob," and Flighters get stuff like "Mighty Blow" and "Evasive Strike."

[Landon Winkler]

First off: This is a fantastic idea for a game. So much so, I felt obliged to excitedly describe it to some friends of mine after reading the thread yesterday.

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for in terms of feedback, so I'm just going to ramble out two ideas that occured to me:
1) It would be neat to integrate Graduation and Issues, so the characters Graduating are the ones who have worked through all their Issues. Seems like it would be the perfect time to let a character step out.

2) I had an odd idea for resolution before you mentioned the two d20s. Don't feel bad if you're set on mechanics, I just want to share. Its based on the idea that most enemies in the setting aren't really dangerous unless you rile them.

Basically, each player has a pool of dice that they can use in monster hunting. Each player can decide how many of the dice they want to roll. Low rolls mean you got too close and got hurt, high rolls mean you managed to damage the monster.

Each player chooses how many dice she'll roll and rolls them at the same time. If they get enough total to defeat the monster, its defeated and everyone gets their rewards. Otherwise it flees (or if its a real monster playing for keeps, something terrible happens).

Not sure quite how it compares with the two d20s approach you're working with now, but another idea for the pot!

Cheers!
Landon

[neko ewen]

I do like that idea, though I wound up combining it with what I already had. You roll 2 dice by default. You can choose to roll more if you like, but it increases the risks and rewards. However many dice you roll, you divide them between offense and defense before you roll. I need to work out more of the details, but a complex challenge is basically a game of chicken with both sides rolling more and more dice.

That aside, I'm getting into some of the real meat of the core gameplay mechanisms. My idea right now is that players have Hope (hopes and dreams for the future) and Zeal (how crazy you are about monster hunting; maybe it needs a better name). If you successfully complete a quest, your character gets a point of one or the other, and at the end of the campaign (which is normally 6 sessions, one for each character level), you check them to see what kind of ending/graduation your character gets. High Hope means you get into a good college or something, while high Zeal makes you more inclined to stick with monster hunting, though Zeal 6 lets you become some kind of monster hunting celebrity (a Steve Irwin of monsters or some such). Oh, also, I'm thinking that reaching a certain threshold of each one would let you resolve an Issue. You can also sacrifice a point of Hope or Zeal to get out of a jam automatically and completely, but in a shameful, depressing way.

The thing I'm grappling with right now is what to do with Stamina and Motivation. Hope and Zeal cover the long-term implications of things, while Stamina and Motivation are short term. Stamina shows fatigue and bruises from fighting monsters, while Motivation shows daily ups and downs. I was thinking of having a rule that you couldn't have a functional attribute level over your Stamina (for battle attributes) or Motivation (for social attributes), but I think that would create an overly powerful death spiral (and make more capable characters more susceptible), but they do need to do something that motivates the players to keep them working

Other little ideas/issues:

• You can take a parental complication to get you out of a jam.
• As a rule of thumb, lots of things in the game let you either sacrifice Stamina or wager Motivation (meaning you lose it if you fail, but gain it if you win). Most of the special class and clique abilities work like this.
• Attribute pairs are normally inversely proportional, with a total of 20 points in the pair. Given that Introvert lets you hold on to your own ideas, that means that as I have it now very Extroverted characters are more vulnerable to persuasion (e.g. if you pick the Popular clique you have Extrovert 14 and Introvert 6). I suppose there could be something that lets you change the nature of a challenge, go on the offensive. I'm not sure this is right, but I don't want people to be able to just pick the attribute they want willy nilly.
• I'm trying to work out what kinds of slang monster hunters would use. So far I'm stealing a lot of stuff from MMOs.

(Also, I've filled 14 pages of my notebook with notes for this game...)

[Wirebrain]

Two ideas worth sharing on this game concept, first time poster BTW:

1. Goals. We all have them, long term and short term. Perhaps the game can lay out generic frame works for "goal cards", and the players have to define them. The goals could provide themselves could provide a bonus in regards to the character, as well as something to be overcome. "Saving up for that moped" could be a "Money" goal card, which grants a player a smaller cash total, but a bonus when scavenging monster bits. There's no reason that a single bonus/penalty have to exist on the "card", and a player could mix and match. Once play begins, players choose the priority they wish to solve their goals. Does Kevin decide to work up the courage to talk to that mysterious girl that he keeps seeing on the subway, or does he decide to more focus on his test scores and stay home?

If he "Graduates" without solving the goal, this could lead to an unfulfilled issue that would give him a complication to his ending, but if the goal was completed, it could give him a better ending (and maybe even a better "score") I figure each player could have 3-4 different goals to take care of.

2. Introvert and Extrovert sound a little too complex to be easily divided into "non-combat's version of attack and defense". On one hand, a extrovert is social, more open to people, while Introvert is more focused on ideas and things. Maybe this could be solved by adding a third byproduct of the two called "Pressure", or giving their own sets of "Pressure".
If two kids, one heavily extroverted and one heavily introverted, get mocked for using the Tyco Whackamajig and not the Nike Slicer in their hunting practices, the extrovert might go along with the pressure and get a Slicer or he could start showing how much the Slicer is a piece of overpriced garbage.
The introvert might ALSO go along with the group and go for the trendy Slicer. He doesn't want any more trouble than what he already has. Or he deals with a little teasing and walks out to cleverly dispatch 3 monsters with "the kids toy" in one go.

quickly, Extrovert should be about handling others and how you present yourself (Talking your way out of a situation, Noticing a mood in a crowd and playing off it, Wearing the "right fashion", being loud) and Introvert should be about taking more notice of the world and yourself (using hard knowledge, noticing a feeling in the air and use it to your advantage, being imaginative, sneaking). Pressure, or "resisting pressure" can bring balance to this problem.

Good luck with this idea!

[neko ewen]

I was about ready to shelf Slime Story for a while, but listening to the Independent Insurgency podcasts on XXXXtreme Street Luge and It's Complicated got me all inspired for some reason. Here's the stuff I was thinking about:

So, for each session you set up a Quest for your character, and if you succeed at it you get a point of Hope or Zeal that determines your character's fate in the endgame. If each of these passes a certain threshold, you can resolve one of your character's two Issues. I decided that what this means is that you can set up a Quest to resolve an issue, rather than automatically doing so.

I still need to work out the details, but I think the two status tracks--Stamina and Motivation--will basically have thresholds where they cause penalties and create complications. Unless you're facing Dangerous monsters and accumulate injuries rather than just fatigue, you get all your Stamina back at the start of the next session, but Motivation takes longer to regain.

I'm trying to avoid the tedium of equipment lists--both for myself as the designer and people who play the game--so I'm planning to have it be so that you buy equipment of a general type (Clothes, Weapons, Accessories, etc.) and you can spend more (or get a discount) for adding descriptors like Quality, Trendy, Stylish, Gimmicky, Weird, Dorky, etc., which can affect not only your effectiveness in battle, but how you do with social situations. So for example using a Dorky sword could cause penalties when you try to ask the popular girl on a date, while using a Stylish one could give you a bonus. Trendy equipment gives a high bonus to such things, but that bonus quickly degrades over time.

A tiny little thing I thought up that I like: The four attributes have names, but I also want to give them little icons. Attack would be a sword, Defense would be a shield. I'm thinking a mouth for Extrovert and a book for Introvert, though I'm open to suggestions.

I'm still wrestling with what to do with Introvert and Extrovert in social challenges. I may have to conclude I'm just on the wrong track here (I am basically taking my untested idea for handling combat and trying to contort it into something that works for social situations), but I'm thinking an important thing will be the fact that while you can pick which of the two attributes is offensive and which is defensive, you will always have to use the other attribute for the other side of the challenge. If you use your higher attribute offensively and your lower one defensively, you might wind up with a pyrhic victory by taking lots of hits yourself, even if you do get your way in the end (she goes out with you on a date, but makes you pay for everything).

[neko ewen]

I've made a bunch more progress, though right now the major question I'm dealing with seems, on the surface, a ridiculously mundane one: What attributes does the game need?

Introvert and Extrovert are not attributes you actively use, but instead small values that determine what kinds of things affect your Motivation and by how much (kind of like the Styles in octaNe).

I decided to ditch the stuff with d20s in favor of 2d6+Bonuses, very much along the lines of Tunnels & Trolls. Combat is now going to be an abstract thing of the group's total bonuses against those of the other side, higher one causes damage to the other. My tentative list of attributes goes: Prowess (offensive ability), Constitution (damage capacity), Arcana (knowledge of monsters), and Cool. This seems about right for doing combat, but I'm not so sure about how it'll work out for social stuff.

Some of the other ones I'm thinking of are:

• Characters have Fashion and Tech traits, that they can develop by spending Resources, but which drop a certain amount each session (unless you pour more Resources into them). Basically, to stay fashionable or to keep up with the latest gadgets, you have to throw out lots of cash.
• A Standing value to represent your overall social standing. Fashion, Tech, and other things can give you chances to raise it. Using it can help you succeed at social stuff.
• "Parents" would represent your overall relationship with your parents (not unlike R.W.P. in Teenagers From Outer Space), which would in turn determine your allowance and what you can get away with.
• Others I'm idly considering: Hope, Zeal, Wits, Agility, Dexterity, Craft

Another neat thing:

• Random events. For each session, each character gets one random Life Event (gift from a relative, insomnia, monster attack at home, etc.), and the group gets two Hunting Events (bump into friends, lousy weather, found a lost pet, etc.)
• The main part of the game consists of Encounters (with monsters) and Interludes (social stuff). Interludes can be flashbacks.