Swiff (Or: CJ's attempt at a non-freeform)

[Crackerjacker]

oops, one other thing. since weak-spots will propell starting character's tertiary traits into the negatives, I think a rule needs to be stated to the effect that while they operate in the negative when the weak-spot applies, any penalties (Hurt, Nervous, Shaken) still start at -1 from his trait's base score (in this case 1) for keeping track of when he'll reach -5 and be incapacitated.

[Jasper]

Sweet :)  

Sounds like a good way to handle the negative too.  You've got a nack for coming up with good examples on the spot, CJ.

So after one default, you think you'll allow further specialties/weak spot combos to be taken if the player so desires?  Any limit?

[Crackerjacker]

I present some sample characters and their advancement paths:

Working Man
--------------------
Violence 5
Style 3 4 5
Intelligence 1 2 3 4 5

speciality:+2 to situations involving Americana (apple pie, baseball, american pop culture and current events)
weakspot:-2 to situations involving foreign cultures

Chessmaster
--------------------
Intelligence 5 6 7 8 9
Style 3 4
Violence 1 2

speciality: +2 to situations involving logical strategy and tactics
weakspot: -2 to situations involving mobility (wheelchair bound)

Stand Up Comedian
--------------------------
Style 5 6 7 8 9
Intelligence 3 4
Violence 1 2

speciality: +2 to situations where humour is appropriate
weakspot: -2 to situations where humour is innapropriate

[Crackerjacker]

Character Creation:

Characters consist of 3 traits, a nature, a speciality, and a weak-spot.

The three traits are Violence, Style, and Intelligence. These must be prioritized during character creation. The one most important to the character is the primary trait, and it starts with 5 dots. The second most important is secondary, and starts with 3 dots. The least important is tertiary, and starts with one dot.

The nature of the character dictates how more dots for traits are distributed as they are gained during play. There are two natures. The first, Expert, restricts the character to adding only one dot each to his secondary and tertiary trait. However he can add all other dots gained to his primary trait. The other nature is Everyman, in which no more dots can be added to the primary trait, and instead dots are added to secondary and tertiary until they both reach 5. Once a character has gained a total of 6 extra dots during the game, that character is deemed a Mature Character and can no longer gained dots to put in traits.

The speciality of a character is a general area of expertise, a type of situation in which all of their traits get a +2 bonus. Simmilarly, the weakspot is a type of situation where all of the character's traits get a -2 penalty.

Character Advancement:
As stated, 6 dots total can be gained during character creation. Experts receive 4 to their primary trait, and the other two are distributed to their secondary and tertiary traits. Everymen distribute 2 dots to their secondary, and 4 dots to their tertiary, so end up with 5 dots in each trait.

A character can lower his weak-spot to a -1 penalty or raise their speciality to a +3 bonus once they have gained 3 of the 6 extra points on their way to becoming Mature Characters. Once a character is Mature whichever they didnt choose occurs, so end up with a speciality of +3 and a weakspot of -1.

[Jasper]

Looks good, CJ, I think it's a solid start.  Now how about some details on how it actually plays, in terms of what players do?  How do you decide who acts and when, for instance (IIEE)?  What different kinds of players are there -- a GM?  What jobs do the different players get?  Is there any narration involved from non-GMs?  Also, on what basis are characters rewarded for advancement?

Personally, I think it'd be good if you focused a little on at least one kind fo setting as an example when you do a final write-up, with the idea that it can be easiyl customized to others.  And "Swiff".... I can't help thinking of "wiff" as in a miss.  Doesn't bring to mind "swift" for me.

[Crackerjacker]

Initiative

Sneaking up is a resisted contest. If the sneaker wins the contest the victim takes a temporary penalty and then presumably the next resisted contest, the actual attack, occurs. If the victim wins then they receive no penalty, and the resisted contest between the two (the attack/defense) goes on normal.

In a Standoff there is a simple resisted contest. The loser takes a temporary penalty and then the actual attack resisted contest occurs.

In a Fray all members are in contest, no penalties occur, but from greatest to least each gets to decide who they engage in a resisted contest.

btw: temporary penalties only last during the combat, and do not remain or require being "healed" afterwards. So it makes it easier for the victim to get further penalties, but the temporary penalty is subtracted from the normal penalty after the fight/situation is over. So if the victim starting with a -2 penalty for being snuck up on, and end up with -5 at the end of the fight, in reality they only have a -3. So they were incapacitated for the fight, but get up afterwards.

[Jasper]

CJ,

I think you might have misunderstood my question (if you were trying to answer it...). By "who gets to go" I didn't mean just character initiative, but how interaction between players goes -- how do events logically follow from what players say?  I'd suggest checking out IIEE at the end of Ron's Simulation Article and this thread for starters.

[Doctor Xero]

I like the basic character quantification overall, although admittedly
how it interacts with the game mechanics will make a considerable
difference.

(For some reason, I think the term weak spot nicely captures your
ambience better than would terms such as "disadvantage", "flaw", or
"drawback".)

More on the game mechanics themselves!

Since your three stats fit more a specific style or ambience rather than a
specific genre, I might want to several variations of your game for
different genres (as I would with Gobi's Punk game!).  What I mean
is that I can easily picture this character quantification working equally
well for a t.v. cop show campaign, a natural disaster movie campaign,
an invaders from space campaign, a fight-the-giant-shark/gator/gerbil
campaign, a pulp archaeological quest campaign (such as a wryly punkish
sort of Indiana Jones tale), a hard-day's-night-on-the-spaceship campaign
(less Star Trek and more Darkstar), or even a wryly punkish fantasy
tale (not Conan nor LOTR but more Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, although
you might need to have a fourth stat such as Spirit or Magical Oomph).

I present some sample characters and their
advancement paths:

Working Man
--------------------
Violence 5
Style 3 4 5
Intelligence 1 2 3 4 5

speciality:+2 to situations involving Americana (apple pie, baseball,
American pop culture and current events)
weakspot:-2 to situations involving foreign cultures

Chessmaster
--------------------
Intelligence 5 6 7 8 9
Style 3 4
Violence 1 2

speciality: +2 to situations involving logical strategy and tactics
weakspot: -2 to situations involving mobility (wheelchair bound)

Stand Up Comedian
--------------------------
Style 5 6 7 8 9
Intelligence 3 4
Violence 1 2

speciality: +2 to situations where humour is appropriate
weakspot: -2 to situations where humour is innapropriate

I look forward to reading your further thoughts.

Doctor Xero

[Crackerjacker]

Indiana Jones is a mature everyman with every stat at 5, whereas his father is a mature expert with intelligence of 9, style of 4, and violence of 2.

and I think it would work in different genres.

Pulp would best be captured by playing with mature characters, whereas in a cop drama they might be starting characters that never gain any advancement dots. For a disaster game most of the characters would be starting "level" everymen, with perhaps an expert (a doctor?), and maybe a Bert Gumble mature or at least somewhat advanced expert or everyman character.

And generally I thought this game would be played like the standard of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Shadowrun, or countless other games, where players dictate their characters actions, maybe speak in character, and there is a Gamemaster runnign the game.