Urge is up and for sale

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Just a note to let everyone know that both http://www.heartburngames.com/urge.html">Urge, my new mini-supplement, and Electric Ghosts, Raven's supplement, are both on the Sorcerer website now.

_________________
Clinton R. Nixon
indie-rpgs.com webmaster
http://www.acid-reflex.com">www.acid-reflex.com
http://www.heartburngames.com">Heartburn Games

[ This Message was edited by: Clinton R Nixon on 2001-08-15 13:43 ]

[Bailywolf]

Could you tell us a bit about Urge?  It may have been discussed before, but I'm fairly new and always intrested in indy game design.  I read the teaser blurb off the link in the above post, but was curious how you translate your concepts into mechanics (without giving away the trade secrets, of course).

Thanks

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Well, the mechanics are what you know from Sorcerer. PC's are created in nearly the same fashion, with the score "Urge" substituted for Lore. Urge is a measure of the strength of the predator-spirit inside the PC, and is often used in Urge vs. Humanity rolls to determine who has more control over the PC's body, the PC or his demon.

There is a list of powers, much like in Sorcerer. In Urge, though, they're split into two types, the first being standard Urge abilities, of which you have a number equal to your Will. (I know - it seems odd. Wouldn't it be equal to your Urge? The demons have these abilities to begin with, though, and the amount you can use is really how many you get it to give up by whipping it with your Will.) These abilities are things like Burst of Strength, which lets you get strong for a minute, or Tough, which allows you to walk through a storm of bullets, or Frighten, which allows you to instill animal fear in the hearts of men.

Advanced Urge abilities are where it's at, though. These are what happen when you finally give up, when you embrace your inner beast and let him rule. You have to lose a point of Humanity, and make an Urge vs. Humanity roll, overcoming your inhibitions. If you can let go, though, you can literally transform, letting the demon run free. These are powers like Monster, where you become a bestial knot of muscle and strength; Unfettered, where climbing building is as easy as walking; and Shatter, where you can look in someone's eyes and break their reality into pieces.

The really odd thing about Urge is now that I've written it, I (a) want to change almost everything, and (b) can't describe it. Basically, it's my ode of love to both Sorcerer and The Incredible Hulk. If you haven't heard my rant before, The Incredible Hulk is the best television show ever made. It's immensely depressing, but wonderful: it's the story of having something uncontrollable and frightening inside of you, something that might come out at any time, in any situation, something you fear yourself and have to hide. You travel from place to place, never fitting in, never finding a place to call home, never quite understanding the people around you. If anyone saw your secret side, they'd think you a freak and run away or get you in trouble.

It was a beautiful show, and I didn't even realize any of this when I was a kid watching it. (I now think it's a metaphor for the early teenage male erection, which is a whole other topic that I could write a paper on.)

Anyway - take the above, subtract green monster, add a demon with any powers you choose, and you've got Urge. It's The Incredible Hulk done with Sorcerer. I didn't start it that way, but I really like the melding of my original idea (traditional, clinical, lycanthropy) with the themes from the show.

It's $4, also. Skip lunch and read some Urge. :smile:

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Also - anyone who buys Urge will get the scenario I'm writing for it for free when I'm done. Anyone who waits to buy it until I add the scenario will find it to be pricier.

[Bailywolf]

Well.  I think you've sold one here.  Look over the credit card transactions and seeif you can guese my real name.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I just watched Wolf this afternoon for the first time. You know, the film with Jack Nicholson? I know. It's a crime. I should have seen it years ago.

Anyway, I'm watching it, and right as it ends, I think - "That's exactly what I wanted to do with Urge." And then I thought about it, and realized all the parallels, and thought how moved I loved the fact I finished something good for once.

I know this was self-indulgent, but I just had to share how much I love those little 23 pages. I've got to start running it now.

[joshua neff]

I've got to start running it now.

Or, you could wait until I move to Seattle.

[furashgf]

Thanks Clinton (is that a real name, by the way, or a pseudonym?).  I'll drop the dime when you finish the supplement.  I was already thinking before Sorcerer arrived of how I could do something WhiteWolfish without the bad rules, massively overdone universe, inability to decide if the game was about fighting for humanity or getting away with the nasty, only to find out that you already wrote it :wink:

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Clinton's totally my real name, although I get that a lot.

The supplement's been finished, by the way. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to answer your questions from your e-mail here:

I like the setting / description.  I always liked the idea of VtM (a bit more than the execution).

Why is it for just a few players?  Something about the mechanics?

Seeing Urge compared to Vampire cracks me up, although I see the similarities. You are a person with a nearly-uncontrollable beast inside you, clawing at you to tear through humanity instead of save it.

The reason Urge is for only one to two players is because of the nature of the characters - the Urges (the demons) are not social creatures at all. Instead, they are solitary demons that reside within one person and drive them to seclusion. It takes just as much from The Incredible Hulk as it does from vampire and werewolf myths. Think about trying to play a group of characters that all have different Urges trying to accomplish a single goal. Think about 4 Incredible Hulks walking around together - it's never going to work. They'll rip each other apart before they could do anything - which actually is a story idea mentioned in the text. The worst enemy of an Urge-inflicted human is another one.

[Ron Edwards]

Clinton,

I gotta say, I'm a bit puzzled about your interpretation of a group of Urge PCs.

Well, not about the idea that a whole squad of them is a silly idea. I agree with you there, as "party play" is not what the game is about, period. It's not about problem-solving with a group of diverse tacticians, but about inner turmoil and moral choices. (It's not angst, either, because it's about MAKING those choices.) The whole notion of "party play" is iffy at best in any form of Sorcerer, especially in Urge.

No, I'm puzzled about your notion that they'd automatically be foes. Take "Wolf," for example, which I consider to be an under-rated masterpiece and is utterly consistent with Urge. You have three Urge characters, two of whom fall in love and one of whom is a psychopathic evil fucker. To me, it's not the Urge per se which generates the feelings in question, but rather it translates the feelings into direct, unapologetic action.

So why not an Urge story with two or three PCs, interacting in some sort of similar fashion? Seems like a lot of fun to me.

Best,
Ron

[Clinton R. Nixon]

One more note about Urge: if you haven't bought it, this week's the week to. Until next Wednesday, I'm going to donate the income from all sales of Urge directly to the Red Cross to help with the victims of last week's disaster.

It's only $4 - but it's four bucks you can donate and get a free PDF at the same time, which ain't bad.