Game Mechanic Idea

[migo]

Conceptually this is pretty slick.

Here's a suggestion to cut down on the handling time, however.

Currently, you've got number of cards in order to succeed, and then a time factor that tells you whether the action "goes off" this round or next.

Would it not be faster playing and still hit pretty much all the same points to just have each player draw all at once a number of cards equal to their RC.  Then total the number on those cards with the lower total going first.

I think that could very easily be worked in as an option without having to change anything. I like having some gritty tactical options. What doing each draw individually allows, is someone who is way ahead on the cards because they've been drawing 1s, 2s and 3s, can afford to wait and see how their opponent is doing, and draw extra cards for a more effective attack - or, they can decide to just go right away. I mentioned this in the other thread, you can also spend double the cards to change your action in the middle to something else, so you can strategise which option you want to take as you're drawing. Having people draw at the same time also encourages fast action, since whoever says they're going to act goes first, it penalizes people who spend time thinking about what they're going to do. If you draw all the cards, then effectively you just have an initiative order with all the problems of waiting for the person with initiative to make a decision. I guess I would have to include a rule that you keep drawing cards every 3 (4, 5? - I guess depending on play test results) seconds to emphasise this.

Also, I'm keeping in mind eventually building a tarot reading into the resolution system, so drawing 1 card at a time would support that a bit better. (At least I think it would, giving you time to think about what each card you draw represents).

So I need 4 cards to pick the lock, you need 5 cards to climb the wall.  I draw 4 and sum, you draw 5 and sum.  If my sum is lower than yours (likely because of the ease of my task) I succeed first.

I don't want to have a direct comparison of results there, because then it really is going to be like a dice system. In that example, if the person who needs 5 to climb the wall has a much higher time rating, then it's quite possible that he would go first instead. I'll have to look at actual play there though (which I'll get the opportunity to do on Monday). I have the feeling that with extended action it'll make a significant difference whether everyone draws all their cards at once or if they do it one at a time. I'll have to play out both options to see if that's actually the case or if I'm adding unnecessary complication.

Relative speed between characters can then be handled by discarding high cards from the deck.  At a certain level of skill I can discard all Kings.  At a higher level I can discard all Queens as well.  Eventually a high enough level character will stand a good chance of being able to draw 7-8 cards to a novice's 4 and still go first.

Not a bad idea, but again since I want to integrate tarot cards into it once I understand how they work better, that would be seriously nerfing some of the potential for the system.

Also, you have the great added feature of keeping a running time tally.  If my 4 cards sum to 25 and your 5 cards sum to 31 then for our next contest "run and grab the item" I'm starting at T=21 with a 6 point advantage...in other words, I'm already 6 "steps" to the item when you reach the top of the wall.

Where's the 21 coming from? The whole paragraph makes sense to me with 31 instead of 21. I really like that you pointed that out though. I wanted to include a momentum system in a similar vein to Donjon's and that integrates with the system nicely, whereas what I was thinking of before with carrying over cards doesn't quite fit in as well (I suppose I could use both in different ways though).

If you want to have different Skill levels by Skill instead of by character, that's just as easy.  Instead of discarding all Kings out the deck to begin with, you just discard them (or not) as you draw based on the skill you're drawing with.

Thoughts?

Discarding kings, queens etc. was actually part of the original system I had witch was modeled a lot more closely off Bust! With a poker deck it works fine. With the tarot deck, I'm trying to think how it would work without having kings count as a free card and still including them in the reading. I like the principle of it though, it has an effect without having to bring math into the equation, although I don't think it would be quite the same effect. I'm not even sure if I could do calculations to figure out exactly how that affects things.