Born of the Blood playtest PDF available

[simon_hibbs]

I've been working on Born of the Blood for a while now. I've discussed some elements of the game system on The Forge, but this is the first time the game as a whole has seen the light of day outside my regular gaming group.

The game is subtitled "Roleplaying Immortals in a world of Heroic Myth and Occult Intrigue", which is realy my mission statement as game designer.

We playtested the game last week, and it seemed to run pretty well. I'd appreciate comments from a wider audience though. I'm looking for comments on three aspects of the game : Rules, Setting and Content. By content I mean writing style, organisation, and so on.

The game itself is an 11 page document, coming to about 9,000 words. There is also a character sheet too.

The site is Here.

Best regards,


Simon Hibbs

[Spooky Fanboy]

Okay:

You start out by saying that there are 4 attributes for each character. Then, when discussing Immortals: you say there is only one attribute (Immortal Blood). Which is it?

For Immortals, are their Regeneration, etc. based on the same rank as their Immortal Blood score?

Why no experience gains for Immortals?

That's all for now.

[simon_hibbs]

Okay:

You start out by saying that there are 4 attributes for each character. Then, when discussing Immortals: you say there is only one attribute (Immortal Blood). Which is it?

It's always interesting when it turns out something you think is very clear, actualy isn't!

Immortals have an Immortal Blood attribute, in addition to the other four attributes mortals get (Agility, Wits, Psyche and Strength).

For Immortals, are their Regeneration, etc. based on the same rank as their Immortal Blood score?

They are abilities, and follow all the normal rules for abilities. Whereas their other abilities are based on one of the standard four attributes (Athletics ability is based on the Agility attribute, for example) the same as for mortals, the immortal abilities such as Regeneration and Aura are based on the character's Immortal Blood attribute.

Why no experience gains for Immortals?

This is a tentative rule, and it may change but the essential point is important to my view of the setting.

In the section "Time out of Mind" I discuss the limitations of the human mind - it isn't a bottomless reservoir for knowledge and experience that can never be filled. Also the older we get, the more habit bound we tend to get. It becomes more and more difficult for us to learn entirely new skills and study novel subjects while retaining all our older skill base.

I'm toying with the idea that immortals can learn new abilities, but must 'forget' an equal number of points in an existing ability to
do so (as well as paying character points for the new ability). So a character wanting to gain Typical ability with guns (costs 5 points) might choose to downgrade their Melee skill from Remarkable to Typical in order to do so.

A metagame reason is to give mortal characters some advantages in flexibility and development that immortals don't have, although Immortals can still improve all their attributes (both mortal and immortal) and immortal abilities.

That's all for now.

And very usefull it was too. It's very important to me that I find out where I need to provide a greater breadth of explanation, or tighten up the wording to make it clearer. I'll get working on these aspects of the text right away.

Best regards,


Simon Hibbs

[simon_hibbs]

Just a note to say I've made the suggested improvements to the downloadable version. If you've already got it, there's not much point getting the newer version as the changes are minor. They are:

* Increased font size 1 point for easier readability.
* A little more introductory text.
* Clarified the points Spooky raised previously, in the relevent sections.


Best regards,


Simon Hibbs

[Spooky Fanboy]

Here's an idea:

Immortals have a 'negative trait' that most mortals do not: Weariness. It's not just growing hidebound  due to the limits of the human mind that slows Immortals down. It's also the stress of continuing life while believing a) that no matter how different things seem on the surface, some things will never change, no matter how hard you work at it, and b) that no matter how hard you work at something, the world will still continue to pass you by. After awhile, it just doesn't seem worth it to keep going on.

Weariness starts out equal to the highest Attribute or Ability the Immortal has. As long as it remains equal to the highest Attribute or Ability, the Immortal cannot learn new Abilities or improve his Attributes. The motivation for doing so is lacking, and where there is no will, there is no way.

At the end of an adventure, if the Immortal still has a card left, he can invoke a contest between his highest Attribute/Ability and his Weariness. If the narrator has no Fate Cards, or his Fate Card is lower, the Immortal shifts his Weariness down by the amount shown on his card. If the Narrator wins, Weariness stays the same.

As long as Weariness is lower, the Immortal can learn new skills and increase Attributes. This can be done at either an increased cost, or at a regular cost providing the Immortal removes a similar amount from one of his previously learned abilities.

However, Weariness can also be lethal to the Immortal. Anytime the Immortal suffers a serious defeat or a serious 'shock to the system,' the Narrator can play one of his Fate cards against the Immortal. If the Narrator loses or ties, the Weariness stays as is. If the Narrator wins, Weariness increases.

If Weariness is boosted over the Immortal's highest Ability/Attribute, and the Immortal does nothing to correct this imbalance during play or immediately thereafter, the Immortal expires. He either succumbs to infection from his injuries, goes terminally insane, falls into a coma-like state and eventually dies, commits suicide, or in some other way determined by the player expires and is forever removed from the game. The magic can only amplify the desire to live; it cannot create it. Once that vital spark is extinguished, the character succumbs to the weight of the world and is crushed.

If this is used, I recommend giving every character, including Immortals, four cards to play with. Immortals are just regular humans underneath it all, but they have a lot more emotional baggage to deal with.

All of this is assuming that you have some sort of experience system in mind, or are open to the idea of such. I prefer this only because Immortals are supposed to be the main draw in this game, and I as a player want to see my character learn and grow, or at least know that I have the opportunity. Also, the theme of characters being consumed by their past, especially Immortal characters, makes them more real to me, more human.

Just an idea.

[Spooky Fanboy]

Also:

I reccomend disallowing players from trading their Blood abilities in to secure new Abilities. The Blood is innate; it's what you do with it (learn new and improve old Abilities) that really counts, and what the character really has control over.

[simon_hibbs]

I do like the concept of Weariness, it's certainly consistent with my view of immortality in the game.

First of all I'd make sure that Weariness effects were automatic, not at the discression of the Narrator as this will just lead to accusations of victimisation. As for excess Weariness destroying a character, I think they're more likely to simply withdraw from play. Perhap the other PCs can try and find some way to re-ignite the character's interest in life?

It would also be nice if Immortals could buy-down their Weariness during character generation, but unless they keep those cards at the end of each session, it'll gradualy creep back up again. Once you're in play, the only way to reduce weariness is through card play at the end of sessions though. Perhaps with the Weariness rule, I'd let Immortals get 4 cards instead of just 3 though, otherwise they're effectively only getting 2 cards per session. The game balance here would need careful playtesting.


Simon Hibbs

[Lxndr]

Perhaps one should just be forced to deal with Weariness once a session, period?  Even if you fight it down, the sheer weight of BEING ALIVE...

so... at the end of every session, there is a Weariness check against each Immortal.  Failure means it rises up one, once more.

Thoughts?

[simon_hibbs]

Perhaps one should just be forced to deal with Weariness once a session, period?  Even if you fight it down, the sheer weight of BEING ALIVE...

so... at the end of every session, there is a Weariness check against each Immortal.  Failure means it rises up one, once more.

Thoughts?

I think that's right, just the once per session at the end.

I'll have to think about this. It has to be very easy and quick to do, and but involve some card play.


Simon Hibbs

[Andrew Martin]

I'd appreciate comments from a wider audience though. I'm looking for comments on three aspects of the game : Rules, Setting and Content. By content I mean writing style, organisation, and so on.

Hi, Simon.

Just a little comment about the writing style. In the PDF, the attribute and  skill descriptions look something like this:

Perception : Unranked characters...

I think it would look better like this:

Perception: Unranked characters...

In other words, remove the spaces before the colon.


I noticed a number of spelling errors on this page:
http://www.geocities.com/bornoftheblood/rules_overview.html

"inthat" should be "in that"
"characetr" should be "character"
"Inteligence" should be "Intelligence"
"Psycical" should be "Physical"
"pwoer" should be "power"
"Thier" should be "Their"
"Sinpers" should be "Snipers"
"usualy" should be "usually"

Also some rephrasing would be good.

In this sentence:

"Note that the Narrator gets Fate Cards too though, so you can never be quite sure how any situation will work out in the end."

the "though" should be removed.

In this sentence:

"Psyche measures how determined and willful a character can be, and how well they resist psychological pressure."

I think that "willful" should be replaced with "forcefull". "Willful" to me indicates low willpower, as the person can't keep a steady course in life.

[simon_hibbs]

Just a little comment about the writing style.

All usefull comments. I've been writing and rewriting parts of it so often I sometimes can't see the woods for the trees. I think the whole thing will eventualy need rewriting again from scratch, but I know how distracting spelling errors, typos and formatting problems can be for the reader.

Thanks for your time.

Simon Hibbs

[simon_hibbs]

The rules overview on the web site has been fixed. The page editor doesn't support windows cut-n-paste and doesn't have a spellchecker - gah! I'd forgotten how much effort spellcheckers save. I honestly think the better error correction tools get in word processors, the worse my typing skills become.

ANyway, I've made the suggested formatting chenges in the master document, and that will go up on the web page soon.

From now on, I will focus on particular aspects of the game that are introduced in the current PDF. That way I can keep the current document static, so people who have already read it don't have to pick through a new version hunting for new material. Topics up for expansion include varous kinds of blood magic, secret history, secret societies and scenarios.

Best regards,


Simon Hibbs