[Doomsday] Initial Idea & Character Creation

[Grinning Moon]

I don't know if anyone's ever played a computer game called 'Evil Genius'? Brilliant idea, excellent production values... really sloppy execution and boring gameplay. Which is such a shame, since no other game I can think of puts you in the same position.

The premise is that you're an Evil Genius, out to conquer all the Earth. You build a secret underground base, set-up traps the foil investigators, hire henchmen and minions and organize missions to seize treasures and kidnap people. Secret agents and special forces teams will come and try to raid your base, sabotaging your equipment and killing your underlings (and yourself, if you happen to let your guard down).

The whole game's plot builds towards eventually constructing a Doomsday machine and activating it before you become overwhelmed by the rest of the world's armed forces.


I liked the premise enough that I've tried to kick-off a couple of games built around a similar concept (most of which now rest on the backburner), mixing in certain themes and elements that have always appealed to me; corporate greed, arms dealing, time / reality travel, dark humor, big monsters and treasure hunting. I've finally now got something going that seems to be jiving really well with me - so I think now it's time to let some fresh eyes take a look at and ask some questions.


The working (though I think likely to be final) title is 'Doomsday'. You play as a Distributor for an extra-dimensional corporate arms developer and marketer, specializing in civilization-busting technology (or 'Doomsday Devices'). The materials for making the weapons your company sells is most cheaply available from the 3-Dimensional, mortal dwelling planet of Earth - which, handily, also makes for an excellent target to demonstrate weapon capabilities on.


You can take a look at the introduction and character generation thus far here:

http://www.evilshare.com/357b1242-ede7-102a-a517-00a0c993e9d6 (copy and paste into your URL field)


How does the tone sound to you? Reading it over after having left it for a week, it got me smiling - which is the vibe I want. Did it get you grinning at all?

The more I think about it, the happier I am about this type of character advancement. It almost guarantees that players are never going to be 'stuck' without much to do; any amount of boredom can be immediately squashed by simply gobbling something up to get more Composition points and adding new Components to your character. I'll probably put a sidebar somewhere suggesting that GMs put a cap of some kind on the number of Composition points characters can get in a single session if I feel it's warranted (right now my gut tells me it is; but I want a few playtests first).

I haven't gotten into Expertise yet, but that will involve the player characters gaining skills (which will decrease the target number they need to roll on a d20 in order to get a success) by eating the brains of people they want to gain knowledge from. Fun stuff. I'm also thinking about adding in Stupidity, which players also accrue as they eat brains (which tend to be filled which as much mud as they are gold) and increase the target number players need to roll for certain tasks... but I'm also unsure of what this would add to the game, other than a perhaps unnecessary bother for the players.

The Doomsday Devices themselves will be made of components that the players scour the planet for, in different time periods and realities - the players writing down a number of components they think the device should be made of at the beginning of the game, just after making their characters. So, for example, if Johnny writes down 'The Head of Adolf Hitler, the Warhead of an Iraqi Scud Missile and the Button Eyes of George Bush's Childhood Teddy Bear', and Anne write down 'The Statue of Liberty's Torch, the Original (and Uncensored) Copy of the Bible and the Micro-Processing Unit from K.R.A.K., the NATO  International Defense Supercomputer from the Year 2999', those are the things that they would need to collect to make their Doomsday Device over the course of the game.

Any thoughts and comments are welcome.

[northerain]

The writing in the pdf is alright. I would choose a different font though, it can get tiresome after a while. I've played Evil Genius and thought it was a good premise too. I havent read the whole thing yet, but how about a Power 19?

[Grinning Moon]

Alrighty; I'll see what I can do for a Power 19 (and, for your viewing pleasure, I cleaned-up the formatting and prettied-up the heading fonts; though, obviously, formatting is still a W.I.P. that I'll focus on AFTER I've got the actual writing done. http://www.evilshare.com/355528e0-ee8f-102a-a517-00a0c993e9d6 <--where you can grab the new PDF):

1.) What is your game about? Building a terrible machine that will destroy all life on the planet, and eating people, car, buildings, electrical cables, and just about anything else you can fit into your mouth while you do it.It about being a diabolical monster and violently destroying all that is right with the world in order to turn a quick buck and feel mighty.

2.) What do the characters do? Scour the world for pieces they need to build a Doomsday Device, activate said device, then watch and document the fireworks. In the meanwhile, they gain power by literally eating knowledge right out of people's heads and consuming their surroundings to grow.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do? The players guide their own character & their character's growth, as well as decide what kind of Doomsday Device they are trying to make (what they need to find to create it and what it will do). The GM creates obstacles and complications for the characters to overcome, as well as loosely guides the plot along (based on what sort of things the players need to find to build their Doomsday Device).

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? The setting is Earth (at any time period or alternate reality that the players want - or, more often than not, traversing different ones), which gives the players the satisfaction of being able to stomp on and destroy things that are familiar to them. Obviously, an Earthly setting also helps players relate more with what's going-on.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about? Traits are given appropriately over-the-top names. It is quick and simple, allowing players to do the meat of their character building after the game has already started - the character building itself done through eating people, places and things.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)? The game will reward players who have a dark sense of humor and enjoy smacking and squashing by providing a suitable environment and plenty of incentives / rewards. It will not reward (though also not punish) players looking for a more social and/or introspective experience. If you don't like bashing things, this would not be a game for you.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game? As they destroy and consume things, players get to build their characters up with funky abilitie - and eventually put together a machine that ends the world. After it goes off, they get to run around documenting it's effects on the planet (and maybe having some last-minute showdowns)

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game? Evenly. The players and GM largely share the responsibility of creating the plot, while the GM loosely guides the players (and creates challenges for them) as they drive the story forward.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?) Players get to plan-out the kidn of Doomsday Device they want to build, and what it's going to do. Presumably, they care about getting the job done because they get to watch their hard-won creation do it's thing.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like? Players roll a pool of d20s against a difficulty number. If their dice pool's number of successes equal or beat the difficulty number, they succeed at the task they were trying to do. Otherwise, they fail - and reap whatever potential consequences.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about? They're simple and visceral; rolling lots of big polyhedral dice makes you feel pretty big and impressive. In some instances, players divide up their dice and use both hands to throw them - and having two clenched fists rolling and hurling objects tends to engender a feeling of action and might.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how? Yes; it's a big part of the game. They eat things, they grow bigger and get smarter as a result.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? Players are essentially forced to engage in player advancement, because it's how they accomplish their goal and fully develop their character's strength.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players? The words 'That's awesome,' and 'I'm going to break that thing and eat it,' come to mind. I want the game to produce feelings of playful arrogance and dark humor, as well as excitement and anticipation.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why? Conflict resolution, because conflict is so prevalent in the game, and character development, because it's one of the significant rewards players get during the game.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why? Combat. Fights in the game are going to be FUN, and resolved with rules I've always wanted to play with but never really found anywhere.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't? Players get to play really, really, really bad characters. They get to build a rediculous machine that will kill everything on the planet. They get to tear holes through space-time and walk through time periods and alternate realities as often as characters in most other games walk through doorways. They get to grow through eating people and other stuff. They get to pulverise superheroes, authority figures and other goody-goods.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game? Online PDF, at some rather low price.

19.) Who is your target audience? Young adults, probably guys more than gals.

[northerain]

Alright, here's some questions:
1. Do the players co-operate or compete? If they're competing, how do you handle more than a couple of players effectively?
2. I think that you need a mechanic or reward system for when the WMD blows up the world. Otherwise you're leaving the responsibility with the GM, to describe the end of a world in an interesting enough way to make players feel they actually achieved something. You said something about documenting the effects it has on the world, how does that work?

[Grinning Moon]

1. Do the players co-operate or compete? If they're competing, how do you handle more than a couple of players effectively?

I imagine a cooperative game (though there's nothing to stop some player infighting).

2. I think that you need a mechanic or reward system for when the WMD blows up the world. Otherwise you're leaving the responsibility with the GM, to describe the end of a world in an interesting enough way to make players feel they actually achieved something. You said something about documenting the effects it has on the world, how does that work?

After setting-off the WMD, the players keep their feet on the ground and maintain tabs on what, exactly, it's doing to the Earth (based on how the characters described the device working). This, I imagine, would be a great time to get in some last-minute duelling with a persistent foe (or foes), as well as set-up another adventure (should the players wish). One weapon successfully demonstrated; now it's off to another version of Earth to set another one off.

The reward would be that the players that successfully got their part of the device put together would get to watch it's effect unfold. Those who didn't get theirs together don't get to see their own great plan blossom in full.

[northerain]

1. Do the players co-operate or compete? If they're competing, how do you handle more than a couple of players effectively?

I imagine a cooperative game (though there's nothing to stop some player infighting).

2.

The reward would be that the players that successfully got their part of the device put together would get to watch it's effect unfold. Those who didn't get theirs together don't get to see their own great plan blossom in full.

But don't each of the players want to launch their own WMD? Why do they co-operate?

2. So in a way the WMD are more complicated than say...''blows up world''? I like that. How about an example?

[Grinning Moon]

But don't each of the players want to launch their own WMD? Why do they co-operate?

It's one, single device - each player just has their own component to it. For example, perhaps my component will turn everyone into a flesh-eating zombie, while yours will snare passing comets and drag them into collision paths with the planet.

Each part is capable of doing the job on it's own - but you're showing-off to potential buyers and the company you work for, so overkill is the order of the day.

2. So in a way the WMD are more complicated than say...''blows up world''? I like that. How about an example?

Very much so (in fact, I intend on including a sidebar once I'm polishing-up the rules that addresses this very thing). A good Doomsday Device should do more than just explode; players should come-up with something a little more creative, which will compel the game towards a more satisfying climax than just a big bang.

For example, maybe your part to the Doomsday Device is 'The Horrible Alarm Clock of R'lyeh', designed to ring at such a frequency to awaken Cthulhu and his ilk from their resting place.