[Web of Shadows] Need an Endgame, and a Term

[Josh Roby]

This little snippet of a game has been dogging the back of my brain for too long, so I wrote it out today.  It's missing an endgame -- I know what play of the game should look like, but I can't figure out what tangible and procedurally-determinable end condition it should be aiming for.

Web of Shadows

“This is a world built of darkness, where American gods war for the very oaks. You think you know this world — it looks a whole helluva lot like yours — but things creep in the shadows, and eyes are always watching. There are powers at work in this world that the great unwashed masses are unaware of — at least consciously. There’s always that niggling suspicion in the back of the mind, the unproven certainty that something isn’t right. It’s probably this, more than the Others, that is the source of the greatest differences between your world and mine.

We know something is wrong, but can’t prove it, can’t ever catch it out in the light of day. That starts to wear on you after a while, starts to show in lost sleep and directionless anxiety. It is displayed in our grey, lifeless streets and endlessly corrupt government. It’s even right there in our desperate, hedonistic nightlife — anything to drive that looming presence from our minds. The colors are being leeched out of our world, the spark of life drained to a dying ember.

That changes now. I am the Chosen One. And this is the end of my world.”

Playing the Web

Web of Shadows is a game where each player controls a supernatural conspirator — an Other — in a world superficially similar but far stranger and more dangerous than our own. It is also a world in crisis — the Chosen One has appeared as foretold, and the apocalypse is coming. Each game of the Web of Shadows is the story of the end of the Others’ world.

The important elements of the story are laid out on the table in a Web of cards and strings. Each card on the table represents one element in the story. A card can represent an individual character, an organization, a place, a thing, or even an ideal. Each card has four ’spaces’ on it for characteristics of that card. The first characteristic is the card’s name; the other characteristics are filled out in play. Each card also has four holes punched into its corners. These are used to bind the card to other cards with lengths of string to represent relationships such as love, hate, duty, familial bonds, history, and the like.

Play consists of a sequence of scenes. In each scene some of the players will roleplay events which grow and manipulate the Web of cards on the table. The rest of the players will serve as the audience, and determine how the roleplay affects the Web. In any given scene, you might be called upon to play any character in the Web, including the Chosen One.

You Will Need:
» A package of 3×5 index cards
» A hole puncher
» Some pens (I like sharpies)
» Lengths of string or yarn, from four to eight inches long
» A pile of tokens (10 for each player)

The Prophecy

Begin play with a number of index cards equal to the players in the game. Number the cards on the back, and pass one card out to each, with the number face down. Then, starting with the player who has the “One” card, each player turns over their card and narrates one line out of the Prophecy which foretells the coming of the Chosen One. As they do so, each player lights a candle next to them; dim the house lights when the Prophecy is complete.

The first player must include in their line where the Chosen One is destined to arise; the last player must name the Chosen One. All other players contribute something else about the Chosen One or the prophecied End of the World. When the Chosen One is named, the last player writes the name across the top of a new card and punches a hole in each corner of the card. The Chosen One card is placed in the dead center of the table.

Creating your Other Card

Each player then turns their card over and prepares it for play as an Other card, representing their supernatural conspirator. Punch four holes along the top of the card, and then write down the left-hand side the words “Name”, “Need”, and “Shame.”  These are the three characteristics of all Others. Unlike the rest of the cards in the game, which can have lots of different kinds of characteristics, Other cards always have these three.

Do not fill in the characteristics now. Your Other’s characteristics are filled in not by you, but by the other players during the game. An Other’s characteristics, once determined, cannot be changed.

The Names of Others are always evocative: Demmorash the Scourge, Titania the Everlight Champion, or Zebulon the Undermaster. Names suggest a great deal about the nature of the Other, but the best names suggest more possibilities than can all be true at once.

The Needs of Others are always derived from humanity: blood, tears, dreams, devotion, or the like.

The Shame of an Other is what sets that individual apart from the rest of their kind, if any. One might have killed the only human woman he ever loved; another might have abandoned his homeworld to utter destruction; yet another might have broken the laws of his kind.

Place your Other card in front of you, along with ten tokens and three blank cards. Punch holes in the four sides of the three blank cards; these are your facades.

Framing Scenes

Play begins with whichever player began the Prophecy and proceeds widdershins around the table. You must spend a number of tokens equal to the characteristics written down on your Other card (this will start at zero). If you cannot spend tokens, you must increase Tension (below) by one for each token for which you are short. If this triggers a Backlash, your scene ends before it began.

On your turn, frame a scene involving some of the cards in the Web on the table. Players’ Other cards cannot be included in a scene unless they have been drawn into the Web. Choose one or more players to serve as the scene’s Audience, and assign roles to the other players. These roles do not need to correspond to cards in play on the table — players may roleplay “incidental” characters as easily as characters bound into the situation.

Machinations

Each player with a role in the scene takes a moment to write down on a blank card one of four things they want to accomplish in the scene. This is their Machination card. They may Reveal characteristics, Corrupt characteristics, Bind cards, or Sever cards. These cards are then passed, face down, to the Audience players.

Revealing adds a characteristic to a card caught in the Web. The card must have an empty characteristic slot. You might write “Reveal that Tony saw the murderer flee.”

Corrupting changes a characteristic on a card in the Web to something else. You might write “Corrupt Jenny’s Popular Girl into Willing Thrall.”

Binding connects a card to a card in the Web. You may introduce new cards into play in this way; if it is a new card, you must write a name across the top as it is placed on the table. You might write “Bind Jenny to Tony.”

Severing cuts a connection between two cards. All cards must be connected, eventually, to the Chosen One; if a Sever would cut the card off from the Chosen One, it is invalid. You might write “Sever Jenny’s connection to Tony.”

Conflict

When two players come to a disagreement over the course of events in a scene, either player may call for Conflict. The player who calls for conflict is the aggressor; the other player is the defender. The aggressor begins by spending a token to activate any characteristic or connection involved in the scene and explaining briefly why that argues for their point of view; the defender must spend a token to activate another characteristic or relationship to respond. Then the roles reverse and the defender activates something to which the aggressor must respond. Roles continue to flip back and forth until one player does not respond, either because they have run out of spendable tokens or there are no more applicable characteristics or relationships. The other player then gets his way.

Facade Cards and Other Cards

Facades are special cards employed by players to project their conspirator’s influence into a scene in a more powerful way. Facades may be the Other physically present but in supernatural disguise, an illusion sent from afar, minions acting in the service of the conspirator, or any other such explanation. Facades are usually used more than once, and develop a certain personality of their own; this personality may reflect the real Other, but this is not necessarily true.

Blank Facades can be brought into a scene and bound to any card in that scene with open holes. Facade cards already in play can appear in any scene if they are connected to another card that is in the scene — either as a character being played, the location the characters are at, or a prop in the possession of a character being played. Both methods cost one token, and can be done at the start or in the middle of any scene.

In a scene, a Facade does not require a token to activate its characteristics and connections. When playing your Facade, however, you may spend tokens to perform supernatural tricks and stunts. You may spend one token as normal, or spend two or even three tokens, which requires your opponent to activate two or three characteristics of his own to respond. However many tokens you spend, this always increases Tension by one.

In the rare cases that an Other is drawn into the Web, any of their characteristics can be activated without a token by anyone in conflict with them. On the other hand, a player roleplaying her Other may spend tokens as a Facade to demonstrate supernatural powers; these tokens count double (so one token from an Other must be countered by two tokens by any opponents). An Other’s supernatural powers always increases Tension by one.

Feeding

At any point in a scene, any non-Audience player may declare that they are Feeding. They must select a card with at least one characteristic that is involved in the scene to Feed on. This allows the player to regain tokens up to their limit of ten tokens. Doing this, however, always increases Tension. The player may gain two tokens for every point of Tension they add. If their Facade is in the scene, they may gain three tokens for every point of Tension. If their conspirator is in the scene, they immediately replenish their entire pool, but immediately trigger a Backlash.

Feeding also acts as a Corruption, turning one characteristic into a notation that the card was the target of a feeding. If the card represents a person or group of people, they were fed on; if the card represents a place, people were fed on there; if a prop, someone holding the prop was fed on, leaving telltale marks on the prop, and so on. Feeding corruption happens immediately and does not need to be ratified by the Audience. Further, once a characteristic is so corrupted, it cannot be changed again.

Closing Scenes and Ratification

The Scene ends when the player who started it is satisfied that it is completed, or when the Audience declares that they’re bored. When each scene is concluded, the Audience players for that scene will select one or more of the Machination cards on the basis of their portrayal in the scene. The Machinations written on these cards come to pass; characteristics are revealed and corrupted and connections are bound and severed according to the instructions on the cards. For each card selected, each Audience member may take two tokens from those spent in the scene’s Conflicts. The rest of the tokens are discarded.

If any of the selected Machinations attempt to Bind an Other card into the Web, the player of that Other may substitute one of his Facade cards, instead. If he controls a Facade card already in play and it has open holes, he may use that card. Alternately, he may introduce a new Facade into the Web at no cost.

Tension, Backlash, and Exposure

Tension represents the general unease of humanity, who, while they are not consciously aware of the Others among them, still have a gut feeling that tells them that something is not quite right. Unsubtle acts of the Others increase that feeling of unease. If Tension reaches a certain Threshold, the Others’ supernatural manipulation has attracted attention and a Backlash of dire consequences follow.

The Threshold is equal to the number of players in the game. Each time a card is Corrupted or a connection is Severed, Tension is increased by one. Each time a Facade uses supernatural powers in a scene, Tension is increased. Tension is also increased whenever a player Feeds. Whenever Tension meets or exceeds the Threshold, a Backlash is triggered. If a scene is in progress, it ends immediately.

When a Backlash occurs, the Chosen One starts to put things together. On the first Backlash, every card connected to the Chosen One is marked with a black dot next to its name. These are the people, places, and things that the Chosen One has got to know, either through deliberate investigation or happenstance. On every subsequent turn, every card connected to a marked card gains a black dot of its own, as the Chosen One’s understanding of the situation grows.

Total up the number of black dotted cards that each player has Fed on (one card that has been Fed on by the same player multiple times still counts as one card). Add the number of that player’s Facades that has a black dot. If the player’s conspirator card has a black dot, double their total. Whoever’s total is highest is at least partially Exposed, and one of their characteristics will be set by the other players. If more than one player tie for the highest total, everyone with the high score is Exposed.

Each unexposed player makes a suggestion for how to define one of the Exposed Other’s characteristics, and the player with the lowest total chooses one. The exposed player also loses a Facade of their choosing — either one of their blanks or one already in play, which becomes a normal card. The Exposed player then takes a turn framing a scene, even if this upsets turn order, where the Chosen One somehow discovers the Other’s Exposed characteristic and the Facade is killed, dispelled, abandoned, or somehow nullified. Machinations are played and resolved as normal in this scene.

Tension is thereafter reduced back to zero, to inevitably climb back up to the Threshold again.

Endgame

Yeah, that’d be a good idea.

Of note:

The numbers are sketchy.  If anybody wants to run them and find potential issues, I'm all ears.  Eventually I'll do up some mock games to see if they work.

The game gives a powerful impetus to remain "in the shadows" and keep your Other as undefined as possible.  Inserting Facades into the Web is useful but risky; inserting the Other is very powerful but mostly suicidal.

As it stands, the game will just rattle along until, eventually, everybody is exposed.  I'd like the endgame to happen before that point, preferably, and I think I'd like something to the tune of "Somebody's gonna die, but if the rest of us can convince the Chosen One he was all there was, the rest of us survive the apocalypse."

I'm just not sure how to write up a procedure that allows the players to determine "Why yes, yes, this is the apocalypse!"

So. One endgame shy of a nice companion microgame to Conquer the Horizon.

[Rob Carriere]

Joshua,
You have this inkblot of Chosen understanding slowly flooding the Web. You could say that the Apocalypse occurs on the Backlash where the entire Web is first covered. Any Conspirators left Unexposed at that point survive; they've managed to stay hidden from the Chosen One.

This allows strategizing. If my Conspirator is Exposed, I can try to have others Exposed as well by increasing the depth of the Web; this will delay the Apocalypse, providing additional opportunities for other Conspirators to be Exposed. If my Conspirator is not Exposed, I can try to reduce the depth of the Web, hastening the Apocalypse and increasing my Conspirator's chances of survival.

SR
--

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya Josh,

I understand very well what the players do in your game, but I'm not very clear on what the characters do in each scene.  Besides feeding, what else do the characters *want* to accomplish in the game?  How do they do that?

I'd like to help ya with an endgame, but my knowledge is incomplete at the moment.

Peace,

-Troy

[Josh Roby]

Rob --

I'm pretty sure it would be easy to push the web out faster than tension rose, and it would lead even more to just 'stringing' out a long line of connections in a linear line, which would destroy the web thing I'm going for.  So 'the whole web is marked' as an endgame seems both easy to avoid and that avoidance would be destructive, to boot.  Additionally, the Chosen One doesn't need to find out everything, he/she just needs to find out enough.  I just don't know how to determine what is 'enough'.

I understand very well what the players do in your game, but I'm not very clear on what the characters do in each scene.  Besides feeding, what else do the characters *want* to accomplish in the game?  How do they do that?

Short qualifier: what the characters do in each scene is dependent on which characters we're talking about.  I don't expect players will be roleplaying with their Other very often (and sometimes not at all) and with their Facade perhaps only half the time.  So a good portion of this game is going to be roleplaying what would normally be NPCs.  So I think I need to reconfigure the question more towards "What do the players roleplay the characters doing in each scene and why?"

Which is exactly where the problem lies.  The short answer is "Players roleplay their current character in order to strengthen their case for the Machination that they've put forward."  So if I want to get into the Fiction that the Chosen One is, I dunno, a coward, I'll take whichever character I'm given and try to make the scene about how the Chosen One is a coward.  Why am I doing that?  What benefit is it to me that the Chosen One is a coward?  Not really sure. ;)

To some extent I'm sure "because it's aesthetically pleasing to me" will drive some play.  However, I do want a sort of default fall-back basis for player action -- pursuing the hope of surviving the apocalypse... somehow.  While I'm pretty confident that the in-fiction justification for how that is accomplished is mostly color and irrelevant to the mechanics, I'm not sure how to model it with the shifting web of the situation.  Additionally, backstabbing or compromising your opponents should be part and parcel of play.  So you would be trying to maneuver the Chosen One so that he/she unmasks your opponents and maybe trigger the apocalypse so that they're taken out and you aren't.

I have an inkling that the first player to be fully Exposed (all three characteristics defined, all three Facades destroyed) can trigger the Endgame -- not immediately but by starting a sort of final round or final buildup to a final Backlash.  I don't want to knock said player out of play -- especially now that all their freakiness is on display -- so either they need to be still eligible for a win or eligible for a different kind of win.  So Exposed players can go for a "hell on earth" sort of win where the Others run rampant with gleeful destruction and whatnot; the unExposed players can go for a "kill off the obvious supernaturals and lie low" sort of win.  The first Exposed player will then definitely want to get some allies -- if said player can convince another player who is close to Exposure to help them trigger Hell on Earth, for instance -- and then we got some sweet, sweet, player-versus-player goodness.  (There'd need to be some method to Expose other players sans Backlash for that to work -- perhaps Exposed players can Expose other players or something.)

So maybe something like -- first player that is fully Exposed triggers the Endgame.  Endgame is one full round around the table, starting with the Exposed player.  Each player frames one scene, with Machinations involved.  Backlashes are still possible, and Backlash scenes do not count towards the Endgame round (so if you also get Exposed, you frame your Backlash scene but you still need to do your Endgame scene).  I suspect that there'd be a Backlash every one or two scenes at this point (Exposed players Feeding every scene), with characteristics and Facades falling like flies.  Might need to add some increased lethality for Facades in there, dunno.  But when the Endgame round ends, you see how many players have been Exposed.  If the Exposed outnumber those still in the shadows, they win the "hell on Earth" victory.  If the unExposed outnumber the Exposed, they win the "safe in the shadows" victory.  The winning side frames a final scene (or maybe just narrates it) to determine the details.

Sound feasible?

[Josh Roby]

Addendum: each round of the Endgame must be based off of one of the lines from the Prophecy that opened up the game.  Thank you, Mark Causey!

[CommonDialog]

Joshua,

This sounds like a very cool concept.  It reminds a lot of the Illuminati card game with role playinbg mixed in.

There were two points in your explanation that caught my attention.

#1  You felt that players might be tempted to string out long lines of cards rather than build a web.  I think you can get around this in a couple of ways.  The easiest way is to make connecting to an existing card cheaper in terms of tokens that creating a new one.  There also should be some advantage to connecting to an existing card over creating a new one because from my reading it seems like having a connection to a card makes it easier to end up being Exposed.  I could be missing something.

Would it be possible that you can only roleplay a character (and therefore have machinations) if you are connected somehow to a card.  Therefore the players would try to establish webs as fast as they can so that they can be part of the roleplay and be able to have a Machination.  Just a thought.

#2  The Endgame.  This will work.  I had an alternative idea because I'm not sure if I like the team win concept and at the end, the players deciding whether or not they want hell on earth or if they want to leave the other exposed.  Perhaps you could have the Endgame still be one final round.  But the final round is triggered by a player becoming fully exposed.  This sets up a three way scenario.  There's one final round (not counting backlash.)  Basically, in that round, the Exposed player should go last as he has one last ditch attempt to expose another player.  If that player can do so, that player wins (basically scapegoating the other player.)  The player that did the Exposing wins if no other player was exposed and any of the other players can win if they expose another player.

I just feel like this will keep players from buring their own conspiracy to win the Hell on Earth scenario since the whole point of the game is to keep oneself hidden.  It seems strange that the Other would suddenly expose themself.

I had two other ideas.  Could one player always the Chosen One with different victory conditions?

My other thought was that the Prophecy tells how the Chosen One figures out the Apocalypse has come.  Could that set the victory condition?  So as the players write the Prophecy, they determine the victory condition?  That may not work, but it was an idea I had and it would enforce roleplaying in interesting ways.

[Josh Roby]

#1  You felt that players might be tempted to string out long lines of cards rather than build a web.

Only if the Endgame was triggered by a black dot on every card.  Check it: everybody around the table wants the game to keep going, so everyone around the table support that line being stretched out from the Chosen One.  On the other hand, if that isn't how the Endgame is triggered, there's no incentive to let that shit happen, so if there's a string of cards with somebody else's Facade at the end of it, I'll want to bind that Facade back into the web as close to the Chosen One as possible.  Those lines get looped back into the web pretty quickly.

#2  The Endgame.  This will work.  I had an alternative idea because...I just feel like this will keep players from buring their own conspiracy to win the Hell on Earth scenario since the whole point of the game is to keep oneself hidden.  It seems strange that the Other would suddenly expose themself.

The point of the game isn't to keep yourself hidden; it's to tell the story of the end of the world.  Or to frame it in different terms, it's the story of the end of the shadowy conspiracy.  As such, you both set up and tear down that conspiracy in the course of play.  Think of any conspiracy movie ever and track out what actually happens in terms of narrative structure -- it's all introduce and erode, introduce, plot twist, erode further.

Could one player always the Chosen One with different victory conditions?

I think you're missing a verb.  Clarify?

My other thought was that the Prophecy tells how the Chosen One figures out the Apocalypse has come.  Could that set the victory condition?  So as the players write the Prophecy, they determine the victory condition?  That may not work, but it was an idea I had and it would enforce roleplaying in interesting ways.

The details of the prophecy are, properly, Color.  There is no systemic way to determine if "The blood moon has risen over a field of tribulation" or whatever crazy shit we write into the prophecy.  As such, there needs to be some way to trigger and resolve the endgame through the mechanics that can mirror the prophecy.  So if the Endgame gets triggered and then each Endgame scene is based off of a line in the Prophecy, you'll get something more or less accurate.  I think.

[CommonDialog]

I've found I've never been able to stomach verbs...

Yeah, I was wondering if someone could always "play" the Chosen One.

Also, I'm sorry if I'm missing the point (and from your responses that seems increasingly possible.)  Do you think that everyone will want to keep the game going?  I can see scenarios where a person would want to hasten the endgame (particularly if it were to their advantage due to relative strenghts of their position or the likelihood of triggering Hell on Earth.)

Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I always thought the severing and eroding of pieces of the conspiracy was the keep the real power unexposed.  Is that incorrect?

I hope I'm not wasting your time because this sounds like a sweet game.

[Josh Roby]

Do you think that everyone will want to keep the game going?  I can see scenarios where a person would want to hasten the endgame (particularly if it were to their advantage due to relative strenghts of their position or the likelihood of triggering Hell on Earth.)

You can hasten the endgame, you can slow the endgame, but you can't stop the endgame from coming.  Tokens are spent, refreshing them increases Tension, Tension sets off Backlashes, and Backlashes expose Others.  So while, certainly, some players will want to keep the game going, either cause they're losing or because they're just grooving on what's happening, you can't do it forever, much like you can't keep the same feel going forever in a movie.  Lots and lots of the World of Darkness, I feel, was played in this sort of static focus and hitting one note forever, much to the detriment of the experience.

Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I always thought the severing and eroding of pieces of the conspiracy was the keep the real power unexposed.  Is that incorrect?

That is very correct -- that's why you lose Facades in Backlashes.  And you can certainly do that with the Endgame -- just make sure that the two guys who have been Exposed are the only ones that stay Exposed, and you stay nice and hidden, retaining all or most of your power.  You've won the game.

[Ramidel]

Okay. First, rules tweak (since I have nowhere else to put this)...

The Chosen One never gets a black dot, and isn't connected to himself, and can be used in scenes...and can be fed on, so feeding on him is always risk-free. I trust this is unintentional?

Minor issue aside...I don't really see a solution to this, but the Hell on Earth victory seems to be a valid maneuver rather than a spoiler. "Let's work to expose ourselves at the same time so we can wreck the conspiracy with a bang rather than hide until this all blows over!" How will that be stopped?

[Josh Roby]

Hey, BJ!

Thanks for catching that!  The Chosen One should always count as if it had a black dot -- feeding on the Chosen One is very dangerous.

Hell on Earth is a valid manuever -- ever seen Blade?  The thing of it is, I doubt the entire table will agree on that option, so there should still be some conflict and tension to drive the story.

[Ramidel]

Hey, BJ!

Thanks for catching that!  The Chosen One should always count as if it had a black dot -- feeding on the Chosen One is very dangerous.

Hell on Earth is a valid manuever -- ever seen Blade?  The thing of it is, I doubt the entire table will agree on that option, so there should still be some conflict and tension to drive the story.

On the subject of Feeding...are you allowed to feed on Facades? Others (with an exposed characteristic...)? Your -own- Facade and Other?

As to Hell on Earth...my main concern is that it's too valid of a maneuver (and too easy if all players want to win), but that's for playtesting to figure out.

Finally:

If the Exposed outnumber those still in the shadows, they win the "hell on Earth" victory.  If the unExposed outnumber the Exposed, they win the "safe in the shadows" victory.  The winning side frames a final scene (or maybe just narrates it) to determine the details.

Sound feasible?

So, what happens if there's an even number of players and a tie?