Hoboes... (kind of long)

[mahoux]

This is an idea from Mike Gentry at http://www.edromia.com .  He kind of dropped it and I picked it up again after my viewing of O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  He gave me the greenlight for actually doing the game as a full-blown entity, and I am almost done.

Anyway, Here are the (obligatory) questions and the (obligatory) answers:

What is your game about?
The game is about hoboes in America during the Depression.  They travel around and have adventures.  Kind of D&D on a small, non-hack-and-slash level.  And yes, there is some magic.

How does your game go about it?
The game is largely Simulationist, with some Narrative features.  Players create hoboes based on skills and traits.  They then hop freights around the country, dealing with people and situations according to their skills.  They work odd jobs, beg and steal when they have to, and have adventures based around the game world.  Dealing with hoboes, hobo criminals, police, farmers and a supernatural world that exists on top of the regualr world.

What behavior does your game encourage/reward?
The game encourages role-playing as immersion in character and co-creation of stories.  Narration is passed to players in certain situations, and advancement hinges on play.  The game is also to encourage fun, as in fun in play and fun in storycrafting.

So, here it is in a nutshell.  I may post a "lite" version later.  Players are given 50-75 points.  Players create hoboes by buying dice levels in attributes: Brawn(strength),  Hot Footin'(dexterity/agility/speed), gumpshun(willpower/
stamina), Brains, Horse Sense, Learnin' and Sociability.  They then figure their Teeth (Hit Points) from Brawn and Gumpshun.  Next they buy traits that are part of the hobo's personality (positive or negative), and skills (cooking, reading hobo marks, riding tricks, etc.).  Finally, any hobo who bought a magical trait can buy spells.

As far as system, I'm going d6.  Players roll their dice levels against a success chart:

1=horrible failure
2=failure
3=marginal success.  May have to re-roll later.
4=success
5=solid success.  Better than expected.
6=Amazing success.  Way better than expected.

Or, in the case of opposed rolls, players compare the highest result of a roll.  Social interaction, begging, conning, fighting all fall under this.

When a player rolls all 1s, they narrate the failure, and when a player rolls all 6s, they narrate the success.

Fighting is done by rolling Hot Footin' as initiative, then go from the highest rolls to the lowest.  Players choose attack or defend, and roll against each other as opposed.  Successful attacks whittle away at a hobo's Teeth.

In addition to the real world, the game has the Yonder (Thanks Mike).  The Yonder is an exaggerated version of the real world, except ghosts, gremlins, faeries and myths populate it.  A hobo might run smack dab into the Jersey Devil in the Yonder, or maybe meet Pecos Bill or John Henry.  This world gives a little more fantasy to the game, and can provide for some fun adventures... including the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Anyhoo, this is my framework.  What do folks think?

[Mike Holmes]

Do you mean that players roll their pool of dice and compare the highest die to the chart? Like InSpectres?

If so, then you are going to want to put limits on how high stats and skills can go. Also, are stats and skills additive in any way, or do you just take the closest? What about defaults? Seems a bit tricky in there, you may have some work straightening it all out.

Anyhow, more than 5 dice means that not getting a six will occur less than once in three rolls. So a typical six die pattern would be: Amazing success, Amazing success, Solid success, etc, with any other result only occuring once in twelve rolls.

You get my point; find a way to keep pools down, unless you like the monotony of constant success.

Mike

[mahoux]

Mike Holmes wrote:

Do you mean that players roll their pool of dice and compare the highest die to the chart? Like InSpectres?

Yep, zactly like that.  With the all 1s and all 6s modifications for narrative purpose.  Of course, if 1 is your highest die, then you have rolled all 1s.

If so, then you are going to want to put limits on how high stats and skills can go.

Yes, Yes, I neglected to mention a 5 die cap on any skill/attribute for rolling.

And yes, I like the Inspectres die mechanics.  Very clean and easy.  I wanted to skew the results to success a little though, which is why I set 3 as a marginal success.  Rerolling something like trying to stay upright on a roof of a boxcar is what I have in mind.

[mahoux]

...on Knights of the Road, Knights of the Rail.

For those of you who have seen Mike Gentry's Hard Travellin', this is the Simulationist type game for the hobo genre.

Note that this is the rules lite version.  A lot of descriptors, skills and all of the magic are not included.  They are in the full version.  So is all the background info and extrys.

The file can be found here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~knahoux/data/

a full site and paypal stuff will follow soon.

-Michael Aaron Houx