Quirk-Driven Roleplaying

[Mr. Sluagh]

I'm looking for tips and info on a certain style of social-centered game that popped into my head.  I'm thinking of the sort of game where much of the action, intrigue, humor and entertainment value in general comes from various eccentric PC and NPC personalities bouncing off of one another.

It would probably involve having each PC take a "Quirk" (or something like that), an unusual neurosis or backstory element which the character concept would center on.  Then, Drama/Fate/Action/Karma/Toon/Whatever points would be rewarded whenever a character's Quirk came up in game, possibly increasing the amount if the Quirk severely inconvenienced the character or clashed with another character's Quirk.  

I know I've heard of games like this, as well as books and other fiction with similar set-ups.  Can someone point me to some games which encourage this general style or would support it well, whether in a way similar to the one I've described or not?  How about tips on how to run such an RPG?  Thanks.

[timfire]

Well... Offhand I, personally, don't have that great of a knowledge of all the games out there, so I'm not sure what games utilize that idea.

But I wanted to tell you that this idea has been discussed before in relation to comedy games. Someone commented how the idea of a personal 'mania' is central to most comedic characters.

Anyway, try a search for 'comedy' or something like that. I'm sure you could find something helpful.

[Vaxalon]

Nobilis uses this.

Whenever a character's restrictions come up in play, he gets miracle points that he can spend later on miraculous actions.

[erithromycin]

This is how Flaws work in nWoD (the new world of darkness) - they no longer give 'freebie' points at character creation, but the chance to earn extra experience points by having them hamper you (or through creative use of them) in play.

In that sense they're removed from the statistical gamesmanship that characterises complex point-buy systems like champions, and basically serve as descriptors of character that reward use in play mechanically - your quirk idea, basically. Further exploration of the ramifications of this change are almost certainly going on in the White Wolf thread that's going on at the moment. Or at least I hope so.

Though your 'quirk' idea could obviously be seen to extend to positive traits, which is one of those things - the reward of cool stuff is that it is cool, not that you get stuff for it, isn't it?

Which brings us to questions of what we reward players for during play, or encouraging styles of play through reward.

Some of this can be handled as social contract - "bonus dice for cool stuff" is a key component of Sorcerer and Exalted and, well a whole heapin' helpin' of Forge games that I've seen.

I've run Sorcerer games where bonuses to rolls were earned for 'appropriateness' within the style that we were aiming for, which was a 1920s mystery novel.

It's the kind of thing that's very easy to bolt on to a game (again, we come back to drift) or develop accidentally or through careful interpretation - any system that features rewards within play for given actions (which I extend to mean modifiers to rolls to favourable NPC reaction to experience points) can be made to support this kind of play.

Some of those that do so explicitly in the fashion that you're discussing here I've mentioned, but I'm sure that there are more.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

The Dying Earth is especially centrally constructed on this principle that Drew (erithromycin) has described so well.

In fact, as far as "quirky" goes, The Dying Earth is in a Quirky League of its own, thematically, mechanically, and even grammatically. If you're interested in game-play based on "whups, I'm quirky," then this is the game you need to read and play.

Best,
Ron