Gratuitous Sex & Violence

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Updated!

http://memento-mori.com/sex/

Needs a lot of playtesting, of course. But I think it's better now...more focused. We'll see, won't we?

- J

[Ferry Bazelmans]

I'm gonna try to play it tomorrow night. I do think you should make an easily printable version though. The way it is now, it drops characters off the page and spreads over 4 printed pages.

Fer (Crayne)

[reptile2k1]

I took a look at it... looks great! More elaborate!
But still I would suggest some minor changes in the card colours:

Clubs: Physical feats and combat
Spades: Technical stuff
Hearts: Social stuff, including barter, streetwise, etc.
Diamonds: Mental/Intellectual stuff

This way all "disciplines" can be handled...

Ah! And a "printer friendly version" would be cool!

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I took a look at it... looks great! More elaborate!
But still I would suggest some minor changes in the card colours:

Clubs: Physical feats and combat
Spades: Technical stuff
Hearts: Social stuff, including barter, streetwise, etc.
Diamonds: Mental/Intellectual stuff

This way all "disciplines" can be handled...

Ah! And a "printer friendly version" would be cool!

Nope, sorry. There's no really no reason for a contest to involve anything other than violence, technical stuff, emotional stuff or contacts/finances. it's not realistic but it doesn't have to be (completeness for completeness sake is not good design, IMO). Thanks for the suggestion though.

[reptile2k1]

Nope, sorry. There's no really no reason for a contest to involve anything other than violence, technical stuff, emotional stuff or contacts/finances. it's not realistic but it doesn't have to be (completeness for completeness sake is not good design, IMO). Thanks for the suggestion though.

I have to admit that I am "the generic type" of gamer... if a system looks cool, I love to use it for different settings as well. And S&V's card-mechanic definetely looks cool!!!

But on the other hand, I really think an "intellectual" aspect is missing: What if cops and detectives have to do some thinking? Searching for clues, linking different cases... and what about jumping, running climbing? I guess a crimminal on the run has to do stuff like that...

I don't want to annoy you, just help constructively during the design process! :)

[Jared A. Sorensen]

But on the other hand, I really think an "intellectual" aspect is missing: What if cops and detectives have to do some thinking? Searching for clues, linking different cases... and what about jumping, running climbing? I guess a criminal on the run has to do stuff like that...

I don't want to annoy you, just help constructively during the design process! :)

No problems, mate.

Running, jumping, detective work...this will all be handled by a Drama system. Your PI character won't be able to detect his own dick if he's been awake for 2 days because of recurring nightmares...and your hardman won't be jumping quite so high when he's gutshot. That kinda thing...

Because the source material doesn't care about these things, neither do I. In virtually every Vachss novel, the "mystery" part is tangential to the real story, which is about Burke and his family and the way Burke end up entangled with abused kids.

- J

[Matt Steflik]

Very nice!  Contests and bidding, hand replinishment, wounds, and combat much more clearly defined.  The addition of "sex" effects for the aces and "stacking the deck" add nice flavor to the mix.  I think I see your point on not including an "intellectual" attribute...the setting doesn't strike me as a "thinking" one, its more about passion and angst, power and weakness, action and reaction, fear and loathing, etc. with bad things happening to questionaly bad people that happen to have some good qualities. Whew.  Long sentence. Anyway - this looks very cool.  Nicely done!

[sdemory]

Why only former cops, undercover cops or emotionally involved cops? How about crooked cops? Admittedly, I think they should play closer to crooks than cops, but still...

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Why only former cops, undercover cops or emotionally involved cops? How about crooked cops? Admittedly, I think they should play closer to crooks than cops, but still...

Crooked cops are bad guys. In fact, they are the polar opposite of S&V characters (bad guys who do good deeds when it matters). A bad cop is a "good person" (supposedly) who does bad things when it matters.

[sdemory]

Logic's beyond sound, and it does a nice job dealing with citizens who're not on the up and up... the "good" city councilman with a taste for beating crack whores is less of a "good guy" than the outlaw who watches over them.

[jburneko]

Hey Jared,

There is only one tiny problem I see with the design of this game.  The longer you play the 'weaker' your character becomes.  Thus the difference between my 4 hour weekday games and my 8 hour weekend games is going to have a BIG difference on the game because of the rate at which cards get played and need to be replenished.  Or am I missing something?

Jesse

Edited Note:  Ooops.  I just noticed the rule that if in your bid is a card with the same suit as the action you can redraw that number of cards.  This goes a long way towards mitigating the problem I'm seeing.  Still, the difference between a 4 and 8 hour session is going to have an impact on how serious the flipping of a face card is going to be.

Edited Edited Note: I realized I forgot to say that I absolutely LOVE this game.  So much so, that I just emailed the link to my entire group with a note that basically said: THIS is how an RPG should be designed.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Edited Note:  Ooops.  I just noticed the rule that if in your bid is a card with the same suit as the action you can redraw that number of cards.  This goes a long way towards mitigating the problem I'm seeing.  Still, the difference between a 4 and 8 hour session is going to have an impact on how serious the flipping of a face card is going to be.

Edited Edited Note: I realized I forgot to say that I absolutely LOVE this game.  So much so, that I just emailed the link to my entire group with a note that basically said: THIS is how an RPG should be designed.

Well, don't play for 8 hours. Problem solved.

Seriously, I don't think any of my games should be played for more than 3 or 4 hours tops.

And thanks! I have no idea if S&V works or if it's good or whatever...it's nice to hear that people like it. :) Just something to pass the time...