Canon

[Teh_Az]

I was here a long time ago and wasn't heard from at all. This was with good reason. I spent that time polishing my ideas into a solid game, which right now unconsciously turned into a card based roleplaying wargame, just because I wanted to be true to the spirit of the setting I envisioned. My only questions now are regarding the overall mechanics of the game itself. Are there any holes that need filling? Are the rules complete enough or do they need a bit more fattening? Are they easy to understand? Also, my friend told me that we should just leave behind the entire tabletop industry and try to break into the indie game industry. When I say indie game I mean self published computer games and his suggestion was that we should make a Visual Novel out of my writing and mechanics. Should I do this?

Here are the rules.

I. Introduction

The player has the choice of playing two kinds of Characters in Canon, the Clocklord and the Ward.

Clocklords are personifications of the twelve hours of power. Wards are the mortal denizens of Canon itself. Wards can be of a diverse number of ethnic groups, each with their own physical and cultural distinctions.

In Canon, the point of the game is to have an agenda and it is the achievement of that agenda which makes you win. On the metaphysical level of course, the purpose of this game is to tell good stories through fun gameplay, which is why you will find here elements of simplified card gaming, war gaming, and of course roelplaying. Enjoy.

II. Characters

II.a Clocklords

Clocklords are made in a very simple way. You need only understand that they are metaphysical personifications of an idea taken from the twelve hours of power. Here are the basic steps.

Step 1. Name a Clocklord. This name should reflect the idea the Clocklord represents. Also, Clocklords are genderless, so keep the semantics close to your own understanding.

Step 2. Determine the hour the Clocklord comes form. Examples of this would be Federalist Clocklords springing from the Ideology hour, Greed Clocklords springing from the Wealth hour, and even Tyranny Clocklords springing from the Domination hour.

Step 3. Determine the personality of your Clocklord. This personality is very important simply because Clocklord's cannot be personifications without a personality. Keep in mind that it should also reflect where your Clocklord is on the twelve hours of power.

Step 4. Determine your Clocklord's Influence, Power, and then Wealth. Influence is what you use to gain support from earthly mortals for your cause. It is also used to nudge these mortals in the direction which you believe is the right one. Power is the measure of your ability to bend reality. You spend it through the use of cards made specifically for Clocklords. Wealth is what you use to gain material objects. It is also used to buy cards meant for Clocklord use only. When you create your Clocklord you are given twelve points to segregate among these powers. Enjoy.

Step 5. Choose your conduit. A conduit is the link between you and the material world. Without it, you cannot bend reality, gain wards, and achieve anything at all. Conduits may be anything. They could be mechanical constructs, wards themselves, or even inanimate objects. There is only one condition for a conduit to be bound to you and that is willingness. Without it, you are just another idea among many.

II.b Wards

Wards are the mortal denizens of Canon. They are also made in a very simple way.

Step 1. Name the individual. This should of course be a realistic one, considering the context of where your character was born among the cultural groups that populate Canon. More on this will be discussed in a separate treatise.

Step 2. Choose your profession. This is not a skill based nor a combat based game. Profession is a catch all term for what your character is good at. Choose it well.

Step 3. Determine competency. Determine how good your character is at his chosen profession. Every rise up the ranks gains him a bonus of three points when doing something related to his profession. There are four levels of competency, Apprentice, Adept, Journeyman, and then Master. You will start at the apprentice level with no bonus to your actions.

Step 4. Determine attributes. Attributes are characteristics peculiar to your character. You are allowed to choose three for your character among the possible options you are allowed by your gamemaster. Also, here's the things. I don't need to make any attributes right now. Your gamemaster could just make them up for you to fit you. There are things called attribute cards in this game for your perusal as a player, so fret not.

Step 5. Determine Clockface. Like the Clocklords, every being on Canon was born on a particular hour with a predilection or incompetence with the others. This is what you call the Clockface. Among the the twelve points of power, assign the numbers -6 to +5 to signify your strengths and weaknesses. A more detailed discussion on this will be discussed later.

Step 6. Determine personality. You are an intelligent being. As a sign of your intelligence, one must have a personality. This personality must also reflect your Clockface. Enjoy.

III. Development

A game of Canon is structured, ideally, into episodes. In each Episode, when ended, a player may earn development points. For Clocklords, these points may be used to increase your Influence, Power, or Wealth. For Wards, these points can be used to earn attributes from your gamemaster, or ultimately be used to rise up the ranks of your profession.

There is only one way one may rise up the ranks of your profession though and that is through the benevolence of a teacher. You have to be taught your craft. First off, you must have the required number of development points. These you pay the gamemaster to receive the lessons you will be given. Aside from this, there are other requirements which must be met. These are the requirements of the teacher. Once all of these requirements have been met, you finally earn your rank. Kudos to you.

IV. Contracts

Contracts are agreements between wards and Clocklords for the mutual benefit of both. This is how a Clocklord may fain followers and this is how a war may be able to gain the benefits of a patron Clocklord. Contracts vary on a case to case basis. Usually, contracts are nothing more than the terms for receiving and maintaining the support of the ward from episode to episode.

V. Sequence of Play

The game is structured into episodes. At the start of every episode, the folowing things take place:

1. The Influence, Wealth, and Power of the Clocklords are replenished.

2. Contracts are renewed or reneged.

3. New contracts are filed.

During these episodes the players may have their characters do various things in the game environment. These are called actions. Actions are the active manifestations of the twelve laws of power.

VI. Actions

There are two kinds of actions, mundane actions and contested actions. Contested actions are out of the ordinary actions whose actions affect the plot. It is this importance that requires it to be measured for its success.

To measure the success of an action, do the following things;

1. Determine who goes first in an episode. This is very self explanatory. To determine who goes first, have all your characters sum up their Fate and Expertise hours. The highest number always goes first. If there are ties, they act simultaneously.


2. Determine what the actions are done against. There are three basic forms of conflict, mortal against mortal, mortal against evironment, and mortal against environment against mortal. The first to act against another is the actor, and every action done by the acted upon is a reaction.

3. Determine the hour of the action. This means the Watchmaker should judge where the action comes from according to the twelve hours of power. And example would be Killing as something from the Force hour, Intimidate as something from the Domination hour, and then Flaunt as something from the Charisma hour. Even making a purchase is an action whose hour is Wealth. The action's success rating gains the bonus of the actor's hour.

4. Determine bonuses. Actions gain bonuses from the Following; the Character's clock face, the Character's Profession, the Character's equipment, and the Clocklord's aid. Example, if your character is going to steal something and his Expertise hour is +3 then he gets +3. If he is also an Adept Thief, he gains another +3. If he is wearing lightfeather gloves, that is another +4 bonus. If his patron Clocklord is pariticularly generous, he gains another +4. Overall success rating would then be 17 against the targets success as detecting the theft.

5. Compare ratings. Whenever two actions are in contest, the one with the highest success rating automatically succeeds. Example, if a character's action to shoot another is 15, and the dodging party is 16, then the bullet barely hits. If a character's action to pick a lock is 13, and the lock has a 17 difficulty level, then the picking has failed. There is no random aspect in Canon. The Watchmaker sets the difficulty ratings for the environment.

VII Life and Death

At every Episode the characters are given three Will to Live and three Will to Carry On markers. If they lose all trhough Will to Live markers, they die. If they lose all three Will to carry On markers, they pass out and can only be awaken on the next episode.

VIII Combat and Armaments

There are four basic kinds of Armament, Melee, Short, Medium, and Long. An armament used not in its own range gains a penalty of -4 to its success rating when used offensively. Melee is the exception. Unless thrown, it will not succeed until the target is engaged in melee with the attacker.

The Long range armament gains a -6 penalty when not used in its own range. It can hit a target at least two grid locations away on the map. Medium ranges could hit a single grid location away. Short ranges could only hit target within the same location.

Also, some armaments could be used in more than one range category without penalties.

[Catelf]

Hi.
I thought i'd try to give you some constructive criticism. Don't know if i'll manage.
One: It is .... hard, ... if one doesn't think of yor Game in Card Mechanisms, to even read through it.
Two: It seems as if you have many things put into it, possibly too many different game mechanisms, even if they are easy to understand by themselves, it seem to become too much.
Three: Despite this, it might work anyway, but you need to playtest it in order to know! First among friends, to see if at least the Basics work.
Four: Due to #1, maybe you should try to work on the Rule Presentation.

And then: Visual Novel?
Only if you have inspiration to do so, is what i suggest.
Best wishes,
                                 Catelf.

[JoyWriter]

What is the interaction between the Clocklord level and the ward level?

What does the gamesmaster (watchmaker?) do, where is his fun?

What are the parameters on agenda, can players create an agenda themselves?

Always good to see someone getting a different kind of vision for their game and going with it!

[Teh_Az]

Well, first off, the Clocklords don't really have levels. They just get more points to spend on their forms of power. And what do you mean by ward and clocklord level interaction? Also Wards don't get levels either, they just graduate in terms of profession and buy attributes from the Watchmaker.

The watchmaker is there as reality itself. He arbiters over the actions and makes sure the npc operate properly. His fun is just in setting the story and telling it, suggesting or hinting options for the players.

As for Agenda, players are supposed to make their own.

[JoyWriter]

<Head slap> I can't believe I ran into that one! What is the interaction between the spheres of action of the Clocklords and that of the Wards?

Here's an example of that kind of problem being solved.

[Teh_Az]

Well, for one thing, the Clocklords pretty much just bend reality in favor of their wards. They don't need to take turns in action at all, only the wards, but even then I have yet to make the rules for that. Hmmm. Seems like a simple problem. I'm still reading the game you mentioned though and I'm not sure what you meant by "problem" and "how to solve it."

[JoyWriter]

Basically what I was going for is that conventionally in rpgs there are two forms of interaction, two styles of gameplay, in the broadest sense; the GM and the players. Both play the game, but from very different angles. Making those different forms of gameplay match up is a trick done with varying levels of success; do the players overwhelm the GM with information? Are they unable to contribute? etc

Now when you produce different kinds of player characters, you repeat that kind of process; now there are three types of interaction, three ways of approaching the game, how do those work?

What effect should the clockmasters be having on the wards, and vice versa? What do they do that is totally independent of the other group?

[Teh_Az]

Ah, now I'm beginning to understand what you meant by interaction.

There is only one kind of Clocklord, and these Clocklords bend reality in favor of their wards who have pledged loyalty to them. Clocklord's are always played by a human player.

Then, there are two kinds of wards. The first kind is a PC ward, played by another player who may or may not pledge loyalty to a Clocklord, and then there are wards that are nothing more than supporting cast to a Clocklord. These are governed by the Watchmaker. These are those easily affected by the Clocklord in some way to do certain things for them.

The Watchmaker is basically in charge of reality itself. The role of the Watchmaker is to make sure that "Reality Ensures" and is in charge of the overall plot. It should be noted here that the plot should somehow fit into the agenda of the players, as there must be a reason for them to even be a part of the plot.

Now I think it best to define their interaction with each other in forms of role. The Watchmaker is God, the Clocklords are gods vying for power, while the wards are the mortals. Clocklord's need wards to accumulate power and achieve their own agenda, and the wards need the Clocklord's to achieve their own agenda too.

Is there still something I am not getting?

[JoyWriter]

There's probably loads we're both not getting! There always seems to me more scope for design analysis.

But on the specific thing I was talking about (if you haven't lost interest after this delay), how do you see the difference between wards played by players and those played by the watchmaker? Because a number of interesting dynamics occur to me with negotiation:

If a Clocklord can always replace a player character with another ward played by the watchmaker, ie if they have this infinite pool of people they can ask to be their ward, then basically they can always find someone who is willing to do what that player character wouldn't, and so they don't really need her. In contrast she has a finite number of clocklords to negotiate with, and so has to deal with them as they are.

Now this hypothetical problem can be solved very quickly depending on how you set things up:
It might be that the player character wards are "nearby", and searching for another one might take too much time or effort.
It might be rather than looking for "someone" there is a defined starting setting with either a specific cast or certain types of people, so you know you're not going to find someone who just loves to blow themselves up, or something, so only sometimes is there some hypothetical someone who wants it more.
Another way to deal with it is to give the players character wards special stuff, either setting them up in pivotal positions for whatever the clocklords are up to, (which requires foreknowledge of what they want to do), or by giving them special powers compared to normal wards.
Or you could make almost all the current wards pre-aligned to one clocklord or another, and have it so they need the player's wards to tip the balance.

On another topic, the watchmaker has the power to choose whether someone succeeds or not, which can be quite a burden. Now in many rpgs this happens to an extent, but in this case there is no random element to fudge the issue; regardless of bonuses, the watchmaker can set the target too high for them to reach, and even without bonuses, he can presumably set it low enough that they succeed. On what basis do you think he should make those kinds of decisions?

If you haven't decided this yet, don't worry, a preliminary solution is often to look at a game you think does that interaction well and see how it could be shifted to fit your game.

[Catelf]

Hm, a simple question from a simple(?) mind (mine):

Usually, in Rpg's, there is conflict, or at least a Story, but here, Everybody seems to cooperate towards the same, or at least very similar, Goal(s)?

So, where is the Story?
Is there any conflict at all?

Curious Cat