[wine dark sea] characters and conflicts

[redivider]

This is the second posting on my game-in-progress The Wine Dark Sea: the final voyage of Odysseus. A previous post dealt with  my design goals and the combat rules. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17850.0

This post contains a draft of the game's character creation and conflict resolution rules.

I'm going to post the fate rules, which have been split into Mortality and Wanderlust, in a few minutes, since they have a lot of overlap with these sections.




A. Character Creation

Summary of Steps

1.   Each player chooses one Epithet for Odysseus. If there are only two players, agree on an additional epithet so Odysseus has at least three epithets.
2.   Write down three advantages or disadvantages associated with each epithet.
3.   Each player chooses one Motivation for Odysseus. If there are only two players, agree on a third motivation.
4.   Set Odysseus' starting Mortality and Wanderlust scores.
5.   Decide how many Mariners will accompany Odysseus (usually between 1-3 per player).
6.   Each player creates one or more Mariners by giving each Mariner:
·   A name
·   One Epithet with three advantages or disadvantages
·   A profession
7.   Set each Mariner's starting Mortality and Wanderlust at 2,2.

The Man of Many Turns

Odysseus is a chameleon. He is a more complicated man than Homer's other heroes, capable of wise counsel and clever sophistry, brave feats and cowardly tactics, gallant words and bloodthirsty revenge. His reputation has risen and fallen through the centuries. Conservative writers of the classical era questioned his decidedly un-aristocratic exploits (dressing as a beggar, lying about his name, hiding inside a wood horse). The Stoics praised his perseverance before adversity. The rise of Rome as a regional power, whose powerful families traced their descent back to Trojan notables, sealed Odysseus' image as a shifty trickster for two millennium – until the 20th century reinvented him as a modern everyman and symbol of exploration.

1. Choose Epithet

Now it is your chance to define this 'man of many turns.' Each player chooses one Epithet for Odysseus. If there are only two players, agree on an additional epithet so Odysseus has at least three epithets.  During the game you'll be able to draw upon all of Odysseus' epithets from all players, so talk with other players before finalizing your choice. By sharing your ideas you can avoid picking epithets that overlap too closely.

A Homeric epithet is a descriptive word or short phrase that accompanies a character's name in the text. For example, the last line of the Iliad is "And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses." These epithets helped define characters. Many scholars agree that the epithets also served as 'filler' during oral recitals of the epics. Oral poets would improvise parts of the epics. When mentioning a character, they would choose from among epithets of various length and syllabic stresses to complete the line of hexameter verse.

An epithet can refer to a character's personality, skills, physical appearance – anything for which the character would be known or identified. It can be an adjective, noun or phrase and come before or after the character's name. Players should choose an epithet that (a) represents your interpretation of Odysseus and (b) says something about the character that is relevant for game actions. 'Curly-haired Odysseus' is descriptive but doesn't indicate much about the man or what differentiates him from the average mortal. 'White-haired Odysseus,' on the other hand, implies that he is elderly, with the wisdom and frailty of old age.

For examples, here are some epithets that Homer used to refer to Odysseus along with some qualities that later Greek writers attributed to the wanderer:
·   Zeus' equal in his mind's resource
·   nimble-witted
·   sacker of cities
·   much-enduring
·   stalwart
·   resourceful
·   loved of Zeus
·   hardy
·   great glory of the Achaians
·   intelligence
·   craftiness
·   deceitful to enemies
·   short legs
·   skilled with bow
·   fond of food
·   prudent
·   brave when needed
·   a survivor

2. Epithets suggest strengths and weaknesses. They make it easier or harder for a character to succeed at certain tasks. When resolving a task or engaging in combat, players draw upon relevant epithets to gain or lose dice when rolling to determine outcomes. The player who is acting as game master during that task will determine whether an epithet applies to a given situation. To help define the game implications of epithets, players choose up to 3 examples of advantages and/or disadvantages associated with the epithet they gave to Odysseus. Players can list three advantages, three disadvantages, or a mix of both. If you can't think of three modifiers, list two or one.

Here are a few example epithets with advantages (+) and disadvantages (-)

"Odysseus giver of wise council": persuasive (+), knowledgeable (+), good strategist (+)
"bow-legged Odysseus": not a fast runner (-), hard to knock down (+), experienced sailor (+)
"far shooting Odysseus": strong enough to string any bow (+), good aim with bow (+), good eyesight (+)

[Note to self: include footnote or sidebar on whether it is advisable to use epithets with modern, non-Homeric language]

3. Choose Motivation

After picking Epithets, player each choose a Motivation for Odysseus. This is a reason why Odysseus would leave his home and family for a risky journey. Players will be able to draw upon these motivations to influence dice rolls for conflict related closely to one of the motivations. Sample motivations could be:
·   The urge to discover new marvels
·   Desire to retrace his travels
·   Guilt for dead comrades
·   Estrangement from wife and son
·   Midlife crisis
·   Death wish


4. Set Odysseus' Starting Mortality and Wanderlust scores

In Wine Dark Sea, Mortality and Wanderlust determine how Odysseus' voyage will end. The two resources impact the game in several ways:
·   Players can spend Mortality to roll extra dice and help avoid bodily injury; and spend Wanderlust for dice to help escape situations that would trap or delay characters.
·   After each Island Odysseus visits, player get Mortality and Wanderlust points they can use to increase or decrease the characters' scores and make other impacts on the game.
·   If Odysseus' Mortality score is reduced to zero, he dies; if his Wanderlust score is lowered to zero, he finds a place to end his travel and settle down. Either way, the game ends.

Players agree on starting scores. The higher the two scores are set at the beginning of play, the longer the game will tend to be and the 'easier' it will be for Odysseus to survive, at least during the first few Islands he visits. Scores are given as a pair of numbers (because they will be marked down as coordinates on a graph, see the Mortality/ Wanderlust section for more info). A recommended starting score is 4,4 for a two player game, 6,6 for three players, 8,8 for four players, etc. Odysseus' Mortality and Wanderlust scores usually start in balance, with the same numerical value. If you want to bias the game towards ending with Odysseus' death, give him a lower starting Mortality and a higher initial Wanderlust. Do the opposite if you want to bias the game towards a 'settling down' ending.


5. Create Mariners

Mariners are the crew members of Odysseus' ship, his traveling companions. They are supporting characters in the game. Players decide how many Mariners accompany Odysseus. Do you want Odysseus to set off from Ithaca with a handful of close friends, or with a modest sized crew of sailors? From one to three per player is a good range.

6. Some Mariners can be Odysseus' servants or advisors; others are friends, relatives or fellow Trojan War veterans; still others may be sailors he hired or recruited. Whatever their reasons for joining Odysseus on this voyage, they are all treated the same in terms of character design. Players each create one or a few Mariners, writing down:
·   The Mariner's name
·   One Epithet with up to three advantages or disadvantages.
·   The Mariner's profession, gender, and any other very basic biographical info you deem relevant.

7. All Mariners receive a starting Mortality score of 2,2 and starting Wanderlust score of 2,2. These scores may never rise higher than 3,3 and 3,3.



B. Conflict Resolution

Players in Wine Dark Sea roll 6-sided dice to resolve certain dramatic situations. Such conflicts are often between persons and creatures (Odysseus seeking aid from a skeptical local lord), but they can also be between characters and forces of nature (trying to survive a blizzard) or inanimate objects (trying to move a boulder). Violent combat is handled under the combat rules, which is a specialized version of this conflict resolution system.

An opposed roll will answer the questions:
·   Action: did the active character successfully initiate their action and at least partially achieve their goal? 
·   Result: if the action was successful, what results did the active character achieve?
·   Narration: who describes the action, and do the consequences extend beyond the immediate attempt?

Step one: Determine which side of a conflict is active and which is resisting. As a game of striving and voyaging, Wine Dark Sea rewards the bold. The party to a conflict who initiates the tension is rewarded with more dice than a passive party.

Step two: The active player and resisting player determine how many dice to roll. Active and resisting will roll a number of dice based on their character's status. Mortals get 3 dice when active and 1 when resisting. Heroes get 4 dice when active, 3 when resisting. Divine beings get 5 dice whether active or resisting. The game master ranks non-sentient forces or threats as mortal, heroic, or divine in strength and grants them dice accordingly. Next add or subtract one dice for each applicable Epithet and/or Motivation. The player acting as game master has final say if epithets or motivations apply in a given situation. Motivations should have a direct connection to the conflict at hand. For example, a motivation of 'desire to explore new lands' won't help avoid a sword thrust. (While you have to be alive to explore, you have to be alive to do anything.) It would apply if Odysseus was seeking to haggle down the price of a map or to convince a  local resident to serve as a guide for a trek into a mountain range.) A resisting character may choose to expend one or more Mortality points before dice are rolled if the outcome of the conflict could kill or physically injure the character.  The resisting player may also choose to spend one or more Wanderlust points if the outcome of the conflict could detain the character, preventing or delaying them from continuing with their travels. The player receives two additional dice for each point of Mortality or Wanderlust expended.

Step three: active player and resisting player roll their dice simultaneously, concealing the results from each other.

Step four: active and resisting players both take their three dice with the highest results and decide which will be the Action die, which will be the Result die, and which will be the Narration die. Still keeping the dice concealed from the opposing player, line them up in a row: Success, Result, Narration. At times the active player will only roll two dice. In this case, one dice must be placed in Action, the other in Result. If the resisting player rolls less than three dice, they can choose what categories they will assign dice to and which categories will be left empty.

Step five: Active and resisting players reveal their dice and compare results in the three categories:


Action:
·   Active higher: attempt succeeds (with the extend of success determined by comparing Result dice).
·   Tie: attempt is unresolved for the time being. One or both of the sides must spend next action re-initiating the conflict.
·   Resisting higher: Attempt fails.

Result:
·   Active higher: attempt is fully successful
·   Tie: Resisting player's defenses are almost entirely overcome. Resisting player cannot disengage from the conflict and the active player automatically succeeds fully if they keep at the attempt for an additional action.
·   Resisting higher: active player gets part of their desired result and resisting player rolls one fewer die in related conflicts until their new vulnerability  is fixed.

Narration:
·   Active higher: Active player narrates the outcome of the conflict.  If the active player also won on the Action and Results dice, the narrative momentum allows the active player to press the advantage home and immediately initiate another conflict related to this victory. [question: also get a bonus die?]
·   Tie: If the Action failed, resisting player narrates the result.  If action was successful, the active player narrates the result. 
·   Resisting higher: If the action failed, resisting player narrates the result. If action succeeded, active player narrates the result – then the resisting player narrates a twist or detail that will complicate the active character's life. The twist cannot reverse the active player's victory, but it will cause harm or delay. The active character loses resisting player's choice of 1 Mortality point or 1 Wanderlust point (this loss cannot lower Mortality or Wanderlust below 1).

[A few areas I still need to figure out:]
·   How to handle initiative/order of action when more than one character wants to initiate a conflict (probably based on status and relevant epithets.)
·   Can characters assist each other or act jointly in conflicts? Probably yes, able to add extra dice to main party to conflict)
·   Do you keep rolling until a conflict is resolved or roll one "round" of the conflict then switch over to any other ongoing conflicts?

[Valamir]

I like the effect of the Narration dice when the Resisting side is higher.  It really prevents Narration from being the throwaway die.  If the acting player really wants to win big, they can put their highest dice into action and result, but this really risks taking a fate hit.  Jacking up the fate hit (using a 6 to guarentee you won't lose fate) will reduce the character's overall effectiveness.

A very elegant way of covering both "in game" effects (the character really pushing themself and making themself vulnerable) and meta game "what's it worth to you" effects.

If this is the only way to lose fate I think that will be extra effective.

[redivider]

Thanks for the comment. The conflict resolution grew sort of backwards out of the combat rules. For combat I wanted to make sure that the result: "killed but can curse your slayer" (as in Patroclus warning Hector) was possible. That's where the complication of losing on the narration die came from.

I agree with you that if this was the Only way to lose fate it would be an especially significatn risk. It's not. But it is the only way to lose Mortality/Wanderlust without a player intending the character to lose fate.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

First off, I want to say that I love the premise of this game, and the idea of mechanisms that incorporate Ancient Greek poetic tropes fills me with glee.

Bias established, I have a few questions:

* The rules for creating Odysseus' companions are clear, but the conflict resolution section does not suggest any way to use them -- in fact, I kind of get the impression that they are supposed to engage in their own seperate conflicts, using the same rules Odysseus uses. This seems odd to me. I was expecting that the mariners and their epithets would be used primarily as a resource for Odysseus in other conflicts. I.e. "Kristos is fleet of foot, I'll have him run with a message to the ship while I distract the Wicked Sorceress with stories of adventure -- this helps me with the 'steal the Sorceress' riches' conflict." The Odysseus of the final/post-Odyssey voyage seems to me to be a user of men (particularily in what I remember of Dante's version, he basically gets his whole crew killed for his own sake.) I expected to see the companions appear as a resource to be used, abused, and ultimately discarded (or not -- the more opportunities the players have to choose whether or not to sacrifice the companions, the stronger their statements about this-Odysseus and his attitude towards his men.)

For example, the system could allow Odysseus to use a companion's epithet if that companion is helping him in the conflict. The system could allow Odysseus to force one of his men to take a 'wound' instead of him. The system could allow Odysseus to sacrifice his companions as Fate points. (An extreme version of this: you could just give Odysseus a number of crewmen equal to his Mortality -1. Whenever he loses Mortality, a companion either dies or abandons him or is otherwise removed from play. This would create a sub-game for those wanting to see how many survive long enough for Wanderlust to kick in.)

* In general, I'd really like to see some more work with the epithets as an input into the ongoing system, instead of just character generation. The example above about Odysseus 'borrowing' epithets from crewmen is a good example. What about countering epithets? Stripping Odysseus of his epithets as he approaches his final end? Erasing or re-interpreting epithets as actions in a conflict? Assigning epithets to objects in unusual ways in order to gain narrative advantage? (Spend an action to transfer an epithet from yourself to an inanimate object; spend an action to reinterpret the advantages and disadvantages of an epithet; etc.)

Okay okay, so maybe I just want a roleplaying conflict system based around grammar. Still, I think the epithets could use some more verve -- right now it is mostly just an evocative name for a trait, but I think you could do more by drawing on the different ways they are used in the original literature.

* I am a little surprised that there is a seperate combat system. Odysseus does not really strike me as a particularly martial character -- I don't imagine him solving very many of his problems with a sword, exactly. On the other hand, having a distinct combat system tends to imply to players that combat is supposed to be a significant part of the game. Given the similarity of the combat and conflict systems, have you considered trying to integrate them? Or is the aim to support more martial readings, and/or broaden the scope a little?

[redivider]

Emperor, thanks for all the good ideas.

On the first point, I was planning for the mariners to be minor characters in their own right rather than resources.  The sources are mixed; as you mention the companions are faceless in Dante & Tennyson but are fleshed out in Kazantzakis.   Your suggestions are very cool and I'm going to think about using this model - which would also change the timing of rotating control of Odysseus & the mariners. Some of the epithet ideas are also tempting.

Combat is separate:
* because I want to constrain the results to a list of 7 or 8 outcomes that occurred regularly in the Iliad and occasionally in the Odyssey
* because combat has those distinct brief invocations of the finality of death
* to reinforce the consequences of combat
* because Odysseus still has ten years of violence inside and when it emerges, well ask the suitors...

I'm set on it

?"Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody possesses it. The human race is not divided up, in the Iliad, into conquered persons, slaves, suppliants, on the one hand, and conquerors and chiefs on the other. In this poem there is not a single man who does not at one time or another have to bow his neck to force.?"
Simone Weil