Clandestine: Organs of Conpiracy

[Wormwood]

I introduced this game here. One of the major elements in the game involves constructing bodies using a pool of points. At different levels these bodies are conspiracies, small bands of people, or apparently physical bodies. The following is a break-down of the method for constructing these bodies and the different organs they can have.

The Organs:

Pith - These organs are the nervous system of the body, it controls it's actions and allows it to plan for the future. In Layer 01 it is the command structure of the organization. In Layer 02 it is the group leader. In Layer 03 it reflects the natural intelligence and foresight of the body. Pith and Transcendantals are the only two organs that can use Secrets.

Limbs - These are organs which allow direct manipulation of external objects and bodies. Limbs come in several varieties, which essentially are specialties in one form of manipultion. In Layer 01 this is the front-line conspirators, who do the fighting, stealing, and otherwise initiate the directives of their organization. In Layer 02 this is the point man, who handles the direct actions the group decides upon. In Layer 03 this is the arms, legs, tentacles, wings, telekinesis, and other such modes of manipulation.

Support - These organs act as the support and defensive structure for the body. Likewise there are a great variety of these organs, based
on how they maintain or enable the body. In Layer 01, these are the logistical and beauracratic members. In Layer 02, these are the backbone of the group, who cover the backs of their fellow members, and keep track of internal matters. In Layer 03, these organs are rarely seen, unless a body is attacked, the usual exception being when they take the form of armor.

Informal - These are the sensory and communicative organs of the body, they permit the acquisition and transmission of information, but not ideas. In Layer 01, these are the spies, media experts, counter-intelligence branches, and scientists, all who take or provide information. In Layer 02, these are the watchers, spies, and faces that allow the group to learn what is really happening. In Layer 03, these are eyes, ears, mouths, telepathy, and the morse code of the firefly.

Aesthetic - These organs fill in the gaps. They are the necessary unnecessary. It is they who turn the body from a collection of organs into a whole. They keep the identity of the organization firmly in place, fufilling the deep need for beauty and terror. In Layer 01, these are the armchair intellectuals, the artists, and the philosophers. In Layer 02, these are the heart of the team, who maintain morale and keep them united. In Layer 03, this is the inbetween bits, the parts that make a body not only useful, but also impressive and whole, completing the picture.

Generative - These organs allow for the creation of new ideas, not merely the dwelling upon the old ones. The methods to produce these new ideas vary greatly, but even more so does the use and training. In Layer 01, these are the think tanks, mystical seekers, and scientific visionaries. In Layer 02, these are the long term planners of the group. In Layer 03, these are the various organs that permit repoduction, whether it be sexual, asexual, or parasitic, among other possiblities.

Transcendental - These organs allow for the investigation and application of the unknowable. Their mystical nature allows them to use
the secrets that the meme posesses. In Layer 01, these are mystery orders and keepers of secret lore. In Layer 02, these are the quiet holders of lore and wisdom. In Layer 03, these are esoteric organs, whose purposes are strange, often being not entirely physical.

Request for Comment

So how does that look? Anything really missing in terms of organizations, groups, or bodies? How good is this for visualizing a body on each Layer?

Thank you for your time,

   -Mendel S.

[Mike Holmes]

I assume that in Layer 4 these things are what their titles say they are? Pith is Pith in the realm of ideals?

Mike

[Wormwood]

Mike,

Well, Layer 04 is where memes rely only on their memetic qualities. No bodies allowed. So, the organs only need to have an analogue at the lower three Layers. The organs are supposed to be literally the associated organ at Layer 03, but there is a significant variety in each class of organs.

  -Mendel S.

[Wormwood]

Building a Conspiracy

Memes start with a set quantity of points.

These points may be spent to purchase organs in bodies of the player's choice with the following restrictions:

All bodies must have at least one Support organ.

Memetic qualities each limit one aspect of the process, but after creation these limits may be exceeded.

Adaptability - Maximum value for Aesthetic Organs.
Persistence - Maximum value for Support Organs.
Insidiousness - Maximum value for Informal Organs.
Accesibility - Maximum value for Generative Organs.
Passify - Maximum value for Transcendental Organs.
Impassion - Maximum value for Limb Organs.
Focus - Maximum value for Pith Organs.
Diperse - Maximum number of Bodies.
[/list:u]

(Note: the easiest alternative to this is the set each of those limits to some fraction of the total point's provided, such as 10%)

The value of the organ determines it's natural memetic strength, which is equivalent to a group of roughly the five to that power. Training, talent, or ineptitude may alter the actual size of the organ, but not it's effectiveness. I anticipate the standard character will get forty to sixty points to build their bodies.

So what do you think of that? Does it seem to be sufficient for building a small conspiracy, or collection there-of? Do the quality based limits work, or is the randomness element they provide more distracting than helpful?

While memetic qualities do not change during play (except in drastic situations), bodies do change, evolving and transforming, losing and acquiring organs. This is done by the application of memetic strength.

I'll write more on that as I develop it.

  -Mendel S.

[Walt Freitag]

I have to  say, this whole concept is starting to grow on me. If I could just get my brain around how the layers interact in play, I could see a lot of potential here.

Let's see if there's anything you missed...

In Layer 03, it seems as though bodies fight mainly with Limb organs (with Support as defense). But what about infiltration and corruption-from-within sorts of attacks? That should project onto Layer 03 as disease. So perhaps you could have Immune organs, which would be internal security in Layer 01 and the "political officer" in Layer 02. The corresponding memetic quality would be Stability or perhaps Clarity. (You currently have counterintelligence under Informal, which is close.)

Is acquisition and internal distribution of resources covered between  Support and Limbs? Or could you have Digestive organs? (Quality: Utility, perhaps)

You seem to have things pretty well covered.

- Walt

[Wormwood]

Walt,

My basic idea for Support Organs was to combine two Organ catagories I had in a previous version: Resistive and Supporting. The idea being that Support organs help maintain the body, this includes armor, immune system (internal security), regeneration (crisis management teams), and the like.

Support Organs also include logistical organs, which losely includes digestion, although if the resources being distributed are more esoteric then the Pith, Aesthetic, or even Transcendental Organs could be involved.

Limbs do handle most acquisition, but Informal is also involved there, as well as Generative. Although the later are more abstract. Memes can eat their young, just as guppies do.

Limbs can be fairly covert, or very overt. They can provide mobility or active defense as well. This is the reason to have multiple limbs that specialize in the various needed tasks.

One of the interesting elements of the game will be converting organs, splitting them, or combining them. This is intended to produce an organic feel for the growth and development of the bodies, while at the same time memes seek that rarified event of being re-created, which is the only way they can change their qualities.

Well, I hope that answers your questions. I take it that the direct link between qualities and organs seems a good element?

   -Mendel S.

[Walt Freitag]

I think the link is just direct enough. I like that the memetic qualities are maxima, not the necessary actual value of the corresponding organs.

I don't know if this is at all part of your concept of play, but in real life some memes propagate with a minimum of conspiracy (organizational power) beind them, while others have enormous amounts. "Everyone should hear 'The Macarena' as often as possible" is close to one extreme, while "Everyone should pay their taxes" is closer to the other. That means it's appropriate to allow high memetic qualities without the corresponding consipracy organs being equivalently high.

Given that splitting, combining, and converting organs is an element of the game, I can see why you want to keep the number of organ types on the smaller side.

I look forward to seeing more.

- Walt

[Wormwood]

Too much work, not enough time for game design.

Well here's a first stab at the system for evolving bodies, as well as those for changing memes.

Tiers

Tier 01 - Emergence: the pre-eminate field is that of physical reality. Memes at this tier have a natural drift to acting in minimal organization, applying memetic force to affect specific individuals. At this tier their influence begins to spread, but has little global effect. Quality Dice: 1d6 Evolution Cost: 10 - quality

Tier 02 - Entrenchment: the central field becomes occult reality for these memes as their ties to mysteries highten at this tier. These memes have become established having practice and ritual built about them. Quality Dice: 1d8 Evolution Cost: 11 - quality

Tier 03 - Expansion: the meme pushes it's influence to the realm of abstractions, here their influence widens, as they become incorporated in the myriad new memes that enter the world. Their range is global, but their effect is still limited, they are in the state of greatest discovery, becoming finally a "new thing". Quality Dice: 1d10 Evolution Cost: 12 - quality

Tier 04 - Epidemic: the meme has risen in influence to where the very idea-space is warped by it's presence. The influence of this meme is deep and subtle, it is one of the "unmentioned assumptions". Quality Dice: 1d12 Evolution Cost: 13 - quality

Tier 05 - Eternal: beyond and beneath the world, lies those memes who have gone ahead into the higher layers. What awaits them is a great mystery and their nature is beyond even the ken of the most potent memes beneath.

Tiers and Characters:

Characters begin as Tier 01 memes, which defines their qualities and evolution costs. When they qualify to become higher Tier (I'm still wavering on how they do this.) they re-reroll their qualities, using 13 of the new Tier's dice. The player can redistribute any way she likes, but the lower of the qualities in a pair must remain the low pick, although if they are tied either can be chosen as the low pick.

Evolution:

Each Memetic Quality provides one mode of change which a meme can use to alter it's bodies. Each change costs a set amount of memetic strength, which is the Evolution Cost listed in the Tiers section.

Adaptability - Adaptability allows a meme to shift the specialty of an organ, such as shifting a limb from offense to defense, or even mobility.

Persistence - Persistance allows the growth of existing organs, each time it is applied on an organ, it's value increases by one. This costs additional memetic strength equal to the current value of the organ.

Insidiousness - Insidiousness permits a meme to gain control of organs and even bodies. Organs without associated memes can be acquired this way without challenge, meme controlled organs require defeating the meme in a test of memetic strength first. If a body's last support organ is taken, the body is gained as well, though the other organs of the body are not gained, rather they are free to be acquired by any meme via Insidiousness.

Accesibility - Accesibility allows the creation of new organs and even bodies. A new organ has a value of one, and a new body has simply a single support organ, of value one.

Passify - Passify permits the shifting of an organ's type one step according to the following path: Limb -> Informal -> Support -> Pith -> Generative -> Aesthetic -> Transcendental

Impassion - Impassion permits the shifting of an organ's type one step, in the opposite direction of the Passify path.

Focus - Focus allows the combination of two organs of the same type (though specialties may differ), the resulting organ has value one higher than the higher of the two values, if the lower valued organ of value no more than three less than the larger valued one, otherwise the resulting value is simply the larger of the two. The specialty may be selected as the specialty of either organ.

Disperse - Disperse allows the division of an organ into two organs of the same type, each of value one less than the original. At least one of these organs must have specialty matching the original organ. The other organ may have any other specialty.


Well, how does that look? The memetic strength test is still in the works, but it's essentially the resolution mechanic for the game. Do each of these options seem balanced? I've tried to make it so that each pair has simliar functions, so that no meme will be able to capitalize on a given type of functions, due top the high-low relationship of the qualities. Do the options make sense, as far as the qualities go?

Thank you for your time,

   -Mendel S.

[Mike Holmes]

Sweet. Crazy.

Will this ever be a game we can play?

Mike

[Wormwood]

Mike,

Clandestine will eventually be going up on my 52pickup site, probably sometime after Drift, Coming of Age, and maybe Passions Pure. I haven't been really putting this one on the front burner, since the ideas in it are better suited to letting it sit fallow for a little while (at least till I finished Illuminatus!).

One thing I've been debating so far, is whether to have specific specialties for the organs, or just to leave those to the imagination. I can see good reasons either way, but in the end it's probably better to at least make a basic list of specialties for each organ.

After that I need to flesh out the memetic strength contests and it's use. Part of that comes with the rather hairy questions of how memetic strength is gained. That calls in the two most interesting questions of the game: how are scenes manipulated? and who's in charge?

At this point, I'm thinking of a current based on the character Tiers, manipulated by the expense of Memetic strength, which is gained, primarilly, each cut (the separation between one reality and another in the narration). The control of the cuts and the gains seems to be fairly player oriented, so it seems easy to allow a GM-less version, but given the importance of antagonists it seems that the default style of play will have a GM.

Lastly is secrets, which I've neglected up till now, because secrets are essentially non-mechanical. They are keys that permit certain impossiblities (or just improbabilities) and the real mechanical question is how are they generated in an interesting, yet balanced way. The other concern is how they are exhausted if over-used. This later element seems to be a chance for a memetic strength test, to see if the secret is "found out". As this happens it begins the downward spiral to becoming mere myth. After all "two men may keep a secret, if one of them is dead".

Those seem to be the design concerns on Clandestine. That's of course ignoring the need for a fairly developed world, which should be equally complex as the mechanics.

There is much to be done, but I like this game too much to not finish it.

  -Mendel S.