The Seven Days of Annihilation - An Apocalypse-Centric RPG

[Grinning Moon]

This concept's been bouncing around my head for a while now, and a few ideas are just snagging here and there that I think just need to be aired out for some fresh thoughts (in otherwords, I can't think out how to best shape them into something useable, so I'm hoping someone can do the work for me. ):

The idea/premise is simple enough, and I hope for the game to have a sort of 'tongue in cheek' flavor and atmosphere, with strong elements of dark humor and just a pinch of provacativeness (...is that even a word? I guess it is now).

Lord Mac, the pyrotangible chairman of Tooth and Nail - the largest Attraction Corporation in the Doomiverse (the slightly less well lit universe just to the left of ours, and not to be mistaken for the far louder Boomiverse to the right) has finally had his ship come in. Having stretched his patience over dozens of eras, the big week - the 57th Teddy Engrossment - is finally here!

The Attraction Corporations spend eternity upon eternity manufacturing and grooming planetary bodies in our universe, where the Sneering Chunks make their residence - enormous 'chunks' of rock that are most amused by the incineration, dismemberment, squishing, vaporization or otherwise violent demise of the comparatively microscopic organic life surrounding them (...that is, whenever they happen to see it, within the short spans of time that they aren't snoozing). After a body has been established within viewing distance from a Chunk, and an intelligent culture of organisms has been grown upon it (usually taking just scant few millennia or so, properly guided), it's just a matter waiting until the Chunk awakens and invading the planetary body, creating as much carnage and setting off as many fireworks as possible to maximize the Chunk's entertainment (a so-called 'Engrossment').

The invaluable payoff for the Attraction Corporation is that at the end of the Engrossment (typically lasting just a few days worth of time from the perspective of the planetary body in question), the Chunk disgorges an amount of Bedlamonium - perhaps the most versatile and most outright useable substance ever - proportional to how amused it was, before drifting back to sleep. The Corporation is then free to scoop-up the Bedlamonium and wait for/work towards future Engrossments.

Earth is the site of Lord Mac's impending Engrossment, and Earth's moon - unbeknownst to us - is actually Ted, a Sneering Chunk about to rouse itself for a brief while.

This otherwise straight-forward operation is complicated by the fact that Tooth and Nail, as such a large company, is divided into several 'Chambers', each directed by an executive member of the company board. Lord Mac, as the chairman, directs the largest Chamber - but each Chamber has significant weight of it's own, and each executive tends to have an individual agenda to follow. And mostly, this agenda involves claiming enough Bedlamonium for their chamber to juggle themselves into the chairman's position (as Mac himself did the previous Engrossment. And his predecessor in the one before. And so on).

What this leads to, without fail, is the seeding of the planet with advantage factors from every Chamber - typically centuries before the engrossment is even scheduled - and an immediate springing of the cat from the bag and ensuing infighting over the course of the event (which suits the Chunk - and therefore all of the overconfident Chambers - just fine).

Earth is certainly no expection.

One of the most prominent, last-minute seeds planted is intentionally leaked information to some selected number of denizens of the doomed world, giving them a brief glimpse and/or idea of the impending apocalypse (through more mystical things like visions or dreams, or more mundane ones like physical clues, documentations and experiences). Given that these individuals have first-hand knowledge and experience in interacting with their world, and an incredible amount of invested interest in seeing it stay in one piece, they have proven to be valuable tools when manipulated into becoming 'Coaches' for some of a Chamber's assets.


Anyway, I hope that didn't bore you - I wanted to give a good mouthful for the game's context. Players would be given the role of a Coach; someone who is being subtley manipulated into fulfilling the desires of a supernatural deity. Characters would be societal outcasts to some degree, having been plagued most of their lives with premonitions or some other significant 'bread crumbs' of evidence that the end of the world is right around the corner, and their lives have become largely centered around this fact. The game would begin on 'Day 0', the day prior to the Engrossment (essentially time for players to get comfortable within their characters and put them on display), and proceed through the ensuing apocalypse to 'Day 7', the end of the world as we know it (to emerge as shaped by the decisions of players during the game).

Now, as people outside the norm (likely considered delusional or paranoid or a total whackjob), the player characters can't be expected to have many companions or confidents in the world - but the few they DO have, however, are particularly precious to them. And, of these precious few relationships that they have, one is absolutely golden to them. It's almost central to their sanity. This important component of a character is their 'Ward' - someone or something they consider themselves to be a sole guardian and companion to (regardless of the actual truth of this notion). It could be something mundane (a reclusive teenager's crush, a divorced parent's child, a sibling) or something more outlandish (a dead spouse's ash urn, a national flag, a childhood toy, a religious symbol or image).
Characters also aren't necessarily human beings, so a Ward could be taken even further into the realm of absurdity (an artificial intelligence's programmer, a crow's resident flea, a cat's decomposing fish head).

Obviously, characters also have objectives to fulfill on a greater stage (both of their own and those that their manipulator feeds them, in hopes of having the Coach play into their scheme), most of which will lend the character greater power and more assets. These objectives are a character's 'Agenda'.

The conflict, then, is having one's Agenda stay attached with the idealistic (or perceivably idealistic) values of their Ward - and not allowing it to be twisted by their own greed (or necessity) for power (which is what their manipulator will use to have them fall in line with their own plans). Ignoring the ideals of their Ward (doing things that are 'Oppotunistic' rather than 'Idealistic') will result in a 'Chasm' developing between their Agenda and their Ward. If the Chasm grows too wide, the character will find themselves unable to relate to their Ward any longer - losing the last grip they had on reality and descending into madness.

Thing is, whatever a player's character is, they cannot make any meaningful contribution to preserve the world on their own. They have to accumulate an army from their manipulative benefactors, which they can only do through being Opportunistic (characters are not directly involved in the physical conflicts in the game - components of their armies are). So, they have to try and balance their needs and desires as far as trying to prevent the world from being turned into a lifeless husk is concerned (as well as their desires to shape the world as they think it should be) with their psychological need to stay in touch with their Ward.


...Ack, that was really just more context. Yes, yes - I have questions! They're coming! I swear!

- Conflicts in the game involve large armies clashing arms. Having hummed and hawed over the way I want to portray this, and finally just sitting down and watching movies that portray large battles well, I decided that a player has an overall 'army' at their back with which the fighting isn't deeply detailed, and a number of important commanders (I've yet to think of a good title for them) with which the detailed fighting occurs. The thing is, I'm unsure of how to balance this out (or if it's even a good idea, really). What games have done this in the past? How have they worked it out? How many games have been able to pull it off and make it fun (for you, anyway)?

I was thinking of having an enemy army comprised of a facedown deck (or perhaps a number of facedown decks) of sillouette cards, each representing certain enemy assets. Players could then draw from the enemy army to have their commanders square off against whatever portions and components of the enemy that they wanted or felt that the commanders could handle, and then let their 'bulk' army do the rest of the fighting (which would be handled in a more abstract, quick-resolution sort of way - though not without it's own sense of detail). What others games have done this? Has it worked for them?

- I don't honestly know why I like the Agenda / Ward thing, but I do. It reminds me of the CoC madness bit, where you have to balance going insane against casting life-saving spells against cultists and monsters. Thing is, the CoC madness thing I don't actually think is very good, because it effectively punishes the player for having fun. So, in turn, hardly anyone actually manages to get a character through a game without them going crazy or turning into a monster, because otherwise playing would be boring. Or am I just wrong? What other games use similar ideas and 'do it right', in your opinion?

- I wouldn't mind devising some mechanical means for demonstrating that a character is impacting the world around them in a significant way, but I can't think of how to accomplish it (having it just be fluff or verbal consent/communcation would be okay too - but I personally enjoy seeing a more 'real' impact from what I do in a session). Thoughts? What games have done this (I hear Torg has some kind of world-altering mechanic. Of course, I hate Torg with a passion, so I haven't the foggiest notion of how this mechanic works)?

Any other words are welcome, of course. And I apologize for going-on so long... I always think I get more productive workshopping done when I provide more detail.

[contracycle]

- Conflicts in the game involve large armies clashing arms. Having hummed and hawed over the way I want to portray this, and finally just sitting down and watching movies that portray large battles well, I decided that a player has an overall 'army' at their back with which the fighting isn't deeply detailed, and a number of important commanders (I've yet to think of a good title for them) with which the detailed fighting occurs. The thing is, I'm unsure of how to balance this out (or if it's even a good idea, really). What games have done this in the past? How have they worked it out? How many games have been able to pull it off and make it fun (for you, anyway)?

The obvious reference here is Legend of the Five Rings and Seventh Sea, both of which use a mass battle system that resolves the battle overall abstractly, as a dice-off between commanders, and also assigns damage and heroic opportunities to characters.

I was thinking of having an enemy army comprised of a facedown deck (or perhaps a number of facedown decks) of sillouette cards, each representing certain enemy assets. Players could then draw from the enemy army to have their commanders square off against whatever portions and components of the enemy that they wanted or felt that the commanders could handle, and then let their 'bulk' army do the rest of the fighting (which would be handled in a more abstract, quick-resolution sort of way - though not without it's own sense of detail). What others games have done this? Has it worked for them?

This seems plausible to me, I have had similar thoughts, although they were based around drawing individual opponents for characters to fight from a deck.  Seems to me this would give a certain objectivity to the fight, that is, the very random nature of the draw means that its not a GM setup.  I have not seen it done in an RPG myself.

[Grinning Moon]

The obvious reference here is Legend of the Five Rings and Seventh Sea, both of which use a mass battle system that resolves the battle overall abstractly, as a dice-off between commanders, and also assigns damage and heroic opportunities to characters.

I'll see if I can't give those a look. Thanks!

This seems plausible to me, I have had similar thoughts, although they were based around drawing individual opponents for characters to fight from a deck.  Seems to me this would give a certain objectivity to the fight, that is, the very random nature of the draw means that its not a GM setup.  I have not seen it done in an RPG myself.

This is my logic entirely. I'm a but worried about how the set-up is going to go down, but I doubt it's anything to be concerned about (...in fact, now that I've put that down to read, I know exactly how the set-up is going to go down. So nix the worries).


I had what I thought was a pretty fun idea when I woke up this morning, have mulled it over, and I still think it's fun - so I was wondering what anyone else thought:

As I'd stated, the detailed components of physical conflicts are handled by drawing sillouettes from a deck representing an enemy army.

You'd then take a circular 'targeting' token and toss it at the sillouette (which is laying flat on the table, I might be best to note) you want to attack, landing it atop the figure somewhere (if you're performing a physical attack). The token can be moved in six directions, each corresponding with a side of a six-sided die. You can roll a d6, and can move the token whatever distance you wish in the corresponding direction. And you can do this as many times as you wish.

However, each of the attacker's offensive options has a limited accuracy value - and the moment you roll more dice than an attack's accuracy value (plus the attacker's applicable skill value), you may no longer opt for that choice of attack.

I can picture that being fun (with some sense of tension and risk/reward) - particularly since I want it to not be so important in the game that you're hitting your target (which should be easy by these rules), but that you're hitting them in the right bits.

Magic attacks I'd work out a little differently. Every spell has a gesture associated with it, and players would keep a piece of scrap paper with them for drawing gestures (which would be simple symbols). Each side of a d6 corresponds with a certain type of stroke - more somplex spells requiring bigger gestures with more strokes involved. A player rolls a d6, and can either choose to make the corresponding stroke or try for a different kind.

A player also, at the outset of the game, has chosen a 'Bad Thought', which corresponds with (I'm thinking) 3 numbers.

Thus, a player can keep rolling for strokes as often as they want - but if the player ever rolls each of the different numbers (in no particular order, and regardless and how many rolls were spanned between them) of the Bad Thought, something particularly awful happens (against their favor).

I know some people (maybe a lot of people?) don't like this sort of direct interactivty in a game - what do you guys think? I think it'd be a hoot. What other games have done that sort of thing before (I know Aces & Eights uses sillouettes and target tokens of some kind in it's resolution)?

[TomTancredi]

Grinning Moon, I have a few questions. I know you're looking for answers rather than questions, but please indulge me.

From what I understand, the game has an incredible backstory, but the PCs have virtually no access to the backstory. The moon basically destroys the world in the fashion of the PCs choosing, but they're not accruing Bedlanumium, or even know what the fuel is, and barely understand that they are unwitting agents of supernatural forces, right? So the end result is always End of the World, with the PCs gone made from losing their Ward or death?

One idea may be to open the PCs to the idea that they are being directly manipulated by supernatural forces. Perhaps they are (it's hard to tell in the description thus far) and if so, they could try and rebel against them.
 

[hix]

I have another question, following on from Tom's: Your backstory is funny, energetic, and over-the-top. The stories of your protagonists seem to be serious, tragic, and desperate. Which tone do you want the experience of playing 7DoA to be like?

I have to say, after reading your write-up I'm interested in playing a game where you're in charge of a bunch of Attraction Corporations, competing with each other for Bedlamonium, and incidentally destroying planets in the process.

---

Sorceror's approach to mass combat seems similar to your initial ideas. I asked some questions about it in
this thread.

[Grinning Moon]

Grinning Moon, I have a few questions. I know you're looking for answers rather than questions, but please indulge me.

Certainly!

From what I understand, the game has an incredible backstory, but the PCs have virtually no access to the backstory.

Not quite the intent, no.

The thing I always hated about a game like, say, Rifts - which had such a rich setting and surrounding stories - was this very problem. Characters had no real ability to play with it in a meaningful manner; my part and I couldn't go wading into Chi Town and kill Prosek and all his lineage, because such an action would knock canon and continuity around as far as supplements are concerned.

All of the invading corporate armies and the respective big bads are planned to be, from the get-go, completely within reach of the players. Lord Mac, for example, would be mixed into one of his Chambers' army decks - and if players draw and defeat him, it means something fairly significant for his army (likely it's collapse).

The moon basically destroys the world in the fashion of the PCs choosing, but they're not accruing Bedlanumium, or even know what the fuel is, and barely understand that they are unwitting agents of supernatural forces, right? So the end result is always End of the World, with the PCs gone made from losing their Ward or death

I apologize, I didn't explain this very well. No, they aren't accruing any Bedlamonium (which would do THEM no use anyway); whether or not they are suspicious that they are being manipulated would be left up to the player, largely. The invasion takes place over the course of 7 days, yes - but it does not necessarily need to reach it's conclusion. Players have a week to hang-on to their sanity and accumulate enough power to stop the attraction from reducing the planet to nothing. Thus the delicate balance (if the player neglects their ward and goes for power too quickly, they'll lose touch with their humanity. If the player gathers too little power too slowly, they'll not be able to prevent their world's demise).

One idea may be to open the PCs to the idea that they are being directly manipulated by supernatural forces. Perhaps they are (it's hard to tell in the description thus far) and if so, they could try and rebel against them.

Thank-you for the suggestion, but I don't really like it. Rebelling against supernatural possessors is a very tired old premise.

I have another question, following on from Tom's: Your backstory is funny, energetic, and over-the-top. The stories of your protagonists seem to be serious, tragic, and desperate. Which tone do you want the experience of playing 7DoA to be like?

The former. I would envision characters are certianly being tragic, but in a darkly humorous fashion.