[Schrodinger's War] GroupDesign update

[Andrew Morris]

Here's a document I created to help get interested posters up to speed on the GroupDesign project. I hope this makes it easier for people who haven't been involved to jump in and start coming up with ideas. Please note that Sydney Freedberg is the current boss (or "Foot," as we like say), with final authority to resolve disputes and create new GroupDesign threads, or authorize others to do so. This document will be updated as required, and the most current version can be found in my signature.

The intention of this thread is for anyone who's been following the GroupDesign project (or is interested in doing so) to make sure they understand what has already been discussed, without having to go through page after page of old threads. Also, posters who've been involved can comment on any innaccuracies they spot here. It's been a whale of a project to condense everything, so I'm sure I've made a few errors.

The Forge GroupDesign Project
Shrodinger's War 101: A Basic Primer
By Andrew Morris

A while back, it started to become pretty clear to me that the sheer volume of material on the budding RPG "Shrodinger's War" had become a bar to anyone who wanted to drop in and join the discussion (19 threads and hundreds of posts, as of the time I started writing this). Since that would defeat the purpose of the whole GroupDesign concept, I took it upon myself to compile a summary of where the discussion has already gone. So, here it is, and remember, this is open to everyone at the Forge. It doesn't matter one bit whether you've been involved from the beginning or not. See something you like? Say so. See something you hate? Say that as well, but offer some suggestions for making it better.

Just what the hell is this all about?
Well, back in this post, Tobias op den Brouw put forward the question of whether or not anyone's tried to coordinate a group design project on the Forge. Several people pointed out that the problem with such an effort is the lack of "project ownership" and direction. So, I put forward the idea that Tobias should start this thing up, and have participants cede voluntary power to arbitrate major decisions and conflicts over to him.

Draft Mechanics
Sydney Freedberg's Rules (Forge thread)
Tobias op den Brouw's Rules (pdf)
Doug Ruff's Rules (pdf)

Design goals
* Clean, unified mechanics, with few exceptions and special rules
* Simple rules, complex play
* No dice, or very few uses of dice
* Players control more than one character
* Modular rules (core with customized expansions)
* Mechanics require the players to make “hard choices”

What's already been decided?/Core concepts
Pretty early on, Jediblack came up with the basic idea of Archivists, non-corporeal entities who seek the answers to arcane questions throughout space and time by "borrowing" human bodies. At this point, Archivists really didn't do much other than find stuff out, so everyone added to the idea, and we eventually came up with the idea that Archivists are trying to do something in or with the timestream, either to change it or keep it the same. So, currently, the accepted vision of the Archivists is that they are non-corporeal beings who exist outside of human space and time, with the ability to possess human hosts throughout human space and time, granting them abilities and guiding (or controlling) them to achieve the Archivist's goals. Archivists exist in the Great Library, which is an entirely separate, non-corporeal reality. The only time they exist outside of the Great Library is when they are possessing hosts in the Human/Host Time Tunnel (HTT).

* Archivists can't affect human spacetime except by possessing a host
* Archivists can grant powers, skills, and other abilities to their host -- at a price
* Theme: conflict between effectiveness and keeping your host safe (hard and fast vs. slow and steady)

What's still under discussion?
* Archivists: ex-human, or not?
* If they were once human, do Archivists remember their past, or not?
* What is the power level of Archivists?
* Can Archivists enter the HTT at any point, or only certain points?
* Archivist culture -- what the hell is it like, anyway?

Interesting dead-ends
Along the way, we've come up with some very interesting ideas that went nowhere, hit a brick wall, or just tapered off. These have great potential -- they might spark a new idea, or someone might be able to make them work. Take a look and see what you can do.

* Meta-mechanics (mandated seating, real-world time affects the game, etc.)
* Bluffing mechanic
* Recurring metaplot, ala My Life with Master
* Archivist and host are played by different players
* Rogue archivists
* The Nemesis -- an enemy the Archivists are fighting against
* Using less of their power makes Archivists less detectable by others of their kind
* Different incentive systems for host and Archivist's
* Hosts are non-renewable resources, doing anything through them slowly destroys them
* Traits for civilizations as a whole
* Tony's "Tensions" idea from the Nailing Axes thread
* Michael's history idea

Links
I was unsure if I should include this section, since it'll be out of date in no time flat, but I decided to put in in just for the sake of thoroughness. This web page should give you enough information to jump in and have a pretty good grasp of what's happened so far, but if you want to delve into the history of the project in more detail, feel free. Here are all the posts on the Forge concerning the GroupDesign project, Schrodinger's War (keep in mind most of these are all old threads, so please don't post to them):

1) Tobias' initial thread on starting a group design project
2) System and Setting brainstorm -- JediBlack proposes the concept of Archivists
3) Clusters 2 and 3 -- This is where we discuss moral significance and "when things go bad"
4) Time Travel Party! -- We debate whether to include time travel, and how it will work if we do
5) Core vs. Optional (and Option1) -- A brief attempt to decide what elements are vital, and which are optional
6) Nailing Mechanics -- Some early work on hashing out mechanics
7) Mix Your Own Metaplot -- We work on the "big issues" of the game (this was our longest thread)
8) Feel of Play 1 -- What makes Schrodinger's War cool? Why would anyone play?
9) Advanced Archivism -- Just like it sounds, we delve into the details of what it means to be an Archivist
10) Nailing HTT and GL -- We address the different spacetimes of humans and Archivists
11) Nailing Axes -- We hash out the ideas of opposing qualities
12) Thread Index and progress -- An aborted attempt to keep track of all the GroupDesign threads; this document serves that purpose now
13 So we need a website... -- Well, we've got a few now, so this thread isn't very useful anymore
14) Drafting Mechanics -- An early attempt to create one ruleset by consensus; some good ideas, but no unified mechanic
15) Feel of Play 2 -- A short thread on why you would play Schrodinger's War
16) The Pillars of Tobias – Tobias come up with some great concepts that really hammer home the moral aspects of what we're trying to say
17) Doug Destroys the World -- Doug suggests that the Nemesis has actually won and destroyed humanity, and the Archivists are retroactively attempting to stop it before it happened
18) Doug's Possession Mechanic -- Doug suggests some ideas for what possession actually entails
19) Michael's History Idea -- Michael Brazier puts forward an idea about linking human passions to changing history, but no one is able to do anything with it
20) My rules -- Tobias puts forward his mechanics
21) First conflicts happening -- Tobias, Sydney, and I start playtesting Tobias' mechanics by email
22) Doug's Draft Rules -- Doug puts out his mechanics, which overlap and diverge from Tobias' in interesting ways

If you have any questions, comments, or corrections, PM me, or post them on this thread.

[Sydney Freedberg]

Great work, Andrew. This will be a huge help.

We've had a bit of a summer hiatus -- I'm moving, Tobias is moving, and other core project members are much afflicted with other stuff -- but some playtesting is underway and we'll regroup and hammer on design refinements soon.

As always, all contributors are welcome. Anyone who's interested in posting an idea for the project, just PM me to coordinate before starting a thread.



Technical note: the link to Tobias's .pdf isn't working for me -- Tobias, Andrew, can you fix that? Thanks.

[Andrew Morris]

Good catch, Sydney. Tobias' draft rules can be downloaded here.

[ErrathofKosh]

Those links are more than just a good reference for people interested in this particular project.  I think they are a fairly good example of group design in general.  Anyone not particularly interested in this project, but interested in learning more about RPG design would benefit from going through these posts.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya Andrew,

Good to see that this thing is still going.  Hadn't seen a post in a while.  Looks like I missed a few threads here and there, so I'll be catching up.  Nice work! :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Andrew Morris]

Yes, it's still going, but as Sydney mentioned, a whole bunch of the most frequent posters (including our Foot) have been hammered with other time committments recently. Things should start speeding up in the near future.