magickal game

[chris_moore]

Inspired by this from Vincent:

When you design a game, you coordinate what magic is IN the game's fiction with what magic does TO the game's fiction.

Here's an idea.  What magick does to the game's fiction:  It adds plot elements to a scene. 
                        What magic is in the game's fiction:  Omens that the characters can manipulate to their own desires.

Here's what it looks like among the players:  The GM rolls some Omen dice, or picks some Omen stones from a bag.    The Skull and the Sword omens show up.  Some one or something in this scene will die, and someone or something will fight. 

Here's what it looks like in the fiction:  "The witch hears the screeches of fighting cats, and the crow lands on the windowsill.  A night of blood and death, she says to herself."

Then characters can construct a spell to gain their desires, but they must include the Omens.

I know this is an extremely rough idea, but is the magick "coordinated"?

Chris

[C.W.Richeson]

I think it's a great idea.

I could easily see some sort of manipulation of strands of fate being introduced to alter the Omen.  Recast the bones or even pick one out of the bag, for instance.  At a price.  I could also imagine some mechanic like this working with the Omen to shift the target of the Omen.  The player uses dice and mechanics to move the Omen result of Death to a target he prefers - either sacrificing something along the way or having to bargain for the end result.

My only concern would be the frequency with which the Omen is used.  If it's the base mechanic and appears in every scene then I can imagine the game feeling a little too shaped by random chance than player choice.

[chris_moore]

If it's the base mechanic and appears in every scene then I can imagine the game feeling a little too shaped by random chance than player choice.

Right.  I'm thinking, for now, that the Omens will be pulled at the beginning of the session (like, three of them) and the GM, maybe, has the right to inject them, once per game, into the scene of hir choice. 

I'm writing an incantation template, with a very witchy feel (with some rhyme, etc.).  The casting of a spell will have to take the current Omens into account.  If a love Omen hangs in the air, and you want to cast a curse, you will have to include it, somehow, in your spell.  Examples to come!

Chris

[lumpley]

Cool, go!

"This is fun" trumps "this is coordinated (whatever that means)" any day.

-Vincent

[Jarx]

You mentioned about that players could sacrifice to change an omen.
in a swedish game called Noir, there is something called destiny points.
with these the players can affect the settings around them such as being able to use more dices, use less or being able to take of points if the system requires you to get lower than your ability. Any way, by sacrificing destiny points, their own destiny, they can change a part of the outcome, though the most important of the omen should be inavoidable.
For example (I use the sword and skull example): Two of the players(one controlled by an higher force, maybe demons) fight to the death, the one whose charachter isn't controlled by the GM uses 2 destinypoints to make himself stronger and whops the shit out of charachter 2 who(not the GM, noe the real player who is still concsiuos but without controll) Sacrifices 5 destiny points, it ends with that the charachter 2 dies along with the demon but is being ressurected with now a chopped of head(but alive).
In that way both of the omens have been complete, as they fought, Charachter 2 died and awakened.

[Jarx]

I mean to add in the example that Charachter 2 awakened to life, just in a more headless form.

The destiny points are not static, you should be able to get more DP by doing heroic acts or please the gods.

And if omens are open to everyone, the whole story might lose the excitment of not knowing where it all ends.
Though the GM might tell them the omen in form of GMC or take controll over a PC. And does magick have a cost or is it free as long as you make it rhyme?

[chris_moore]

And if omens are open to everyone, the whole story might lose the excitment of not knowing where it all ends.

The Omens are known to all players, but how they will manifest is a mystery, until someone successfully gains narrative control of an Omen.  That's where the suspense is, as I see it.

chris

[Jarx]

Yes but, you still have a great idea of where it'll go after just a few actions by the GM.
Now, if a somewhat fortuneteller gets an omen right infront of them, OK, fine, it just doesnt mean it will happen.
So in that case, there should be more than two omen dices to make things harder for the players.
And how many sides should the omendice have? 6 is normal but with then sided dices theres a higher chance of not getting the same omen every time.
Or use 2d100s, one for each sign seeing so there could be more combinations.
Sword was battle, Skull was death, cup could be victory (whereas a downsided cup is losing), snake could be lies, a cross could be punishment, thunder could be catastrophy, there is so many signs to use. and if you get like the snake, a downsided cup and the cross, someone will lie to the downside of the players maybe, they lose a trial and gets to be hanged in the end, the omen was right. a variation of the same is(inspired by a certain Clint Eastwood movie) one of the players come to a town, claiming to have caught 3 criminals with a bounty on them, he leaves them, gets the money, but when they are getting hanged, the "bountyhunter" shoots of the ropes, frees them and they get away. Now the juridictional system in the town losed, the first player lied that he'd caught them and they were getting the punishment but only for mere seconds.

[Certified]

So at the beginning of the session the omens are drawn, each player knows what they are and can use them to craft their magick. Can a single omen be used more than once or do the players fight for control of the omens to further personal goals?

I think this is a great start, and look forward to seeing what comes of it.