[ASSEMBLER] Runtime debugging...

[Kesher]

I wrote a two-page game called ASSEMBLER for  the Compact RPG Challenge over on the Endeavors forum, and playtested it last night.  I'm sad to say I have no regular gaming group at the moment, but I was able to convince three friends with whom I've gamed before (Bill, Duck and Jerome) to help me try and break things.  I'm happy to say that we were successful...

Upfront I will say that ASSEMBLER owes a lot to Polaris, for which fact I am unashamed.  Also, I apologize in advance for all the capital letters...

Here's a bit of background for the game:

An abstract:

REM Slaves to a dark MACHINE struggle with each other, intolerably stretched between opposing poles of ghost-begged Death and a final, terrible, Disassembly. ENDREM

The first "paragraph":

PRINT (ruleset);
// You are an ASSEMBLER, maintainer of the vast, humming, sweating, blazing, corroded, dark MACHINE. You do not remember how you arrived or who you were; you have no name. There is no need. The MACHINE has given you an I.D.: eight characters etched into the base of your skull just above the slot for the cold metal rectangle containing your JOB.

The theme, if you haven't guessed, was Technological Horror.

For some system context, there is no GM.  Each player creates an ASSEMBLER; the person on your left is your MACHINE and the person on your right is your GHOST.  Each character will, in the end, either follow their GHOST into Death or beg the MACHINE for Disassembly.  Outcomes are decided through bidding dice in (sometimes wildly) fluctuating d10 pools.  Play moves through a Cycles, each composed of WORKPHASE0, EATPHASE, WORKPHASE1, SLEEPPHASE, in that order.  Your GHOST can appear whenever you're alone, even in the midst of your job.  Interactions with the GHOST and also with your fellow ASSEMBLERS during EATPHASE and SLEEPPHASE affect the totals in the pools you roll to stave off Death or Disassembly.  Lastly, other players can add Atmosphere with a limited number of dice during your character's WORKphases.

So, first off, I was pretty pleased to find that the game's essential structure did not break; all the changes I need to make are in the vein of clarifying the focus of the game and tightening the bolts of some loosey-goosey mechanics.

Things that need to change:

1. The focus of the game (Death or Disassembly) needs to be emphasized through the mechanics so that the whole game can be played in 2-4 hours.  That's fine with me, as I'm a past-mid-thirties guy with a two-year-old and tightly-constrained gaming parameters, so I'm all for games (like The Shab al-hiri Roach for instance) that are over in a single sitting. 

2. Overflowing dice pools during the WORKphases need to be controlled.  I think I'm gonna accomplish this through two avenues: First, by moving on to the next player after either two consective or the best three out of five rounds have been won.  Second, since the magnitude of your pool is determined by how many dice you're bidding, the more dice you have when finally rolling to check for Disassembly after being Injured will increase your chance of Disassembly.  i.e., you're free to build up as many dice as you can but, when the check is made, having 1-15 dice in your pool will give you a modifier to your check of x1; having 16-25 dice gives you a modifier of x2 (making it more likely that you'll beg for Disassembly); 26-35 dice gives you a modifier of x3, etc.  I seriously hope no one ever accretes more than 35 dice...

3. Players need to be given the choice of which attribute (Thoughts or Flesh) they're gonna use to accomplish their job, instead of their MACHINE deciding for them.

4. At the beginning of WORKPHASE1 the MACHINE will set the scene and then immediately narrate a Complication.

5. The chance of Death or Disassembly needs to be changed to simply trying to roll higher than your current total on a single d10.

6. It turns out, as I suspected might happen, that GHOSTS are a lot of fun to play; therefore they'll be able to appear multiple times for each character in a given Cycle, instead of only once.  It also gives Death a fighting chance against Disassembly.

7. Something needs to be figured out as fallout for having your dice pool reduced to one (I don't see it as an option to reduce it below one); it was suggested that a Death or Disassembly point might automatically be gained if this happens, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

That's all I can remember at the moment.  Those of you who played, if you think of something I've missed, post it!


Things that went differently than I expected:

You know, you write this game, you get a picture in your head as to what constitues the setting, and what interactions are going to be like, and then you hand it over to other people...

1. I imagined GHOSTS as symbolic apparitions that appeared within the JOB setting to mess with the character.  Right out of the gate Bill, as my GHOST, narrated a mirage that eclipsed reality, which was very cool.  ...and then Jerome played the GHOST as merely a voice, which was very cool.  ...and then Duck created the GHOST out of the situational elements (bioluminescent moths, in this case), which was very cool.  Perhaps you see the pattern...

2. The setting, while technically one gigantic MACHINE, took on a decidedly organic character, which was cool and also very creepy.

3. Everyone wanted to add Atmosphere to GHOSTPHASE interactions as well.  Especially Bill. 

Things that were particularly memorable:

1. Spontaneously deciding that Atmosphere dice should be banged down onto the table, superceding whatever other narration was going on.

2. My character rubbing caustic grease in his eyes so that he could no longer see his GHOST.

3. The entreaty.sequence() with Duck as GHOST and Bill as his character:  "The bioluminescent moths spiral down and join together to form a giant teddybear which reaches out and hugs you."  "I savagely bite it's neck." (BID AND ROLL)  "Honey flows from the wound and fills your mouth."  "I vomit it out onto the ground." (BID AND ROLL)  Maybe you see why Duck kicked my ass as my Mistaken when we played Polaris.  And why Bill probably would, too.

4. Jerome narrating, as Atmosphere, Bill's character seeing remnants of my character flowing through transparent tubes shortly after the MACHINE granted my request for Disassembly.  Now that, for once, was EXACTLY what I had in mind...

I have no idea if the revisions I need to make are going to fit into the two page limit.  Really, though, it's fine if they don't because I'm excited to start putting this together in an expanded version with, you know, some explanatory prose and stuff. 

I would love for anyone interested to read the game as is and let me know your thoughts.  And, of course, if anyone else would like to playtest it, either as it stands or once revised, lemme know!

Lastly, if you haven't checked out the link above to the Compact RPG Challenge, go now.  Really.  Go.  There were a bunch of very intriguing and clever games submitted.

Aaron

[Emily Care]

Hi Aaron,

This looks really good. The programming language format of the directions is such a good match to the subject material.  I have some questions as a non program-head, though. Do you create your machine and ghost by your choice for the player who you take that role, or do they choose it?  Also, did you get rolls where there were no successes?

best,
Emily

[Kesher]

Hey Emily.

Thanks for the comments!

To answer your first question, when you are playing the role of MACHINE or GHOST for another player, you're in control.  In the case of being someone's MACHINE, this mostly means that you bid against them when creating Complications as they attempt to do their JOB; you also decide during WORKPHASE1 at what point you want to call for a potential Injury, and you get to suggest, by your narration, what type of Injury it might turn out to be.

As for the GHOST, the only guidelines I've given so far are that 1) the GHOSTS appearance can change everytime it appears and 2) it should be symbolic of an intense emotional state.  Both of these things are decided upon by you as the player of the GHOST.  Of course, everyone at some point will play someone else's GHOST, and so will get to make these choices.

Now, I'm not sure (because I forgot to ask) if the others in the playtest had a particular emotional state in mind when they were playing the GHOST; I'll let them speak up for themselves.  For myself, I wanted the GHOST for Jerome's character to represent a sense of betrayal; therefore it appeared (this first time) as a friendly, scruffy mutt with a broken leg.  It looked at him imploringly while limping closer and asked why he had left, and if it had done something to drive him away.  His response was to deny its reality, constantly affirming that he had work to do (not surprising, since he happened to be standing in a pile of decaying bodies that were clogging up an airshaft...)

As for your second question, yes we did have a number of rolls with no successes for either side; even though some people were occasionally rolling 20 or even, at one point, 31 dice, you only have a 1 in 10 chance of getting a success.  As the rules stand at the moment, if there's a tie, including a tie of no successes, the MACHINE or the GHOST will win.  This is what partly led to wide disparaties in dice pools.  I'm pretty sure that the rewrite will change no-success ties to the MACHINE/GHOST winning one die and the poor ASSEMBLER losing one, regardless of how many dice were bid in that round.

Now conversely, and somehow I forgot to add this into the "Memorable Moments" part of my first post, at one point Duck, as Jerome's MACHINE only had one die to roll, and got a success; Jerome at that point had THIRTY ONE dice to roll, and got NO successes...  there was much yelling in disbelief.  I'd be interested to know the actual odds of that happening...

Aaron

[Adam Cerling]

Now conversely, and somehow I forgot to add this into the "Memorable Moments" part of my first post, at one point Duck, as Jerome's MACHINE only had one die to roll, and got a success; Jerome at that point had THIRTY ONE dice to roll, and got NO successes...  there was much yelling in disbelief.  I'd be interested to know the actual odds of that happening...

0.38%, or about 1 in every 250 such rolls.