[Legion] first draft

[Uriel]

These is my first for Legion, a convention game inspired by Memento and The Bourne Identity. Each player will get roughly an hour of gameplay and will use the previous players notes and discoveries to try to solve the puzzle of who the hero is and what the scenario is all about. It's heavily inspired by Dread and Wushu and the idea of the mechanics is to reward innovative players with more time. I'm going to start running playtests this week, but I'd appreciate any input you guys can give. I deeply apologize for all language mistakes, I haven't paid much attention to that yet. This game is very different from previous games I've written so I have no idea if it'll work. I'm also aiming for realatively short and easy to learn rules.

Legion V2.3

These rules are intentioned to play fast as well as being easy to learn. The below-mentioned Tower is a standard 16x3 Jenga tower. Each session ends when it falls and a new player takes on the hero. By describing the hero's actions in cinematic, smart and vivid way you are rewarded with more playtime. Use chips or beads of some kind to represent different kinds of points, it makes it easy to move them around.

The Hero has only one attribute: Capacity. This is how much the hero has left to give. Pain, exhaustion and confusion reduce it. Starting Capacity is X???

Each player also starts with a number of Luck points equal to twice the number of Hard damage you begin with. More about that further down.

Conflict

Always remember that conflicts are a lengthy sequence of events that can incorporate both physical, social and mental tasks. So if the heros goal is to prevent a bomb from detonating the first few exchanges might be a battle to get through some mooks, then an argument to get everyone else to run for it, finished with the eternal conundrum of whether to cut the blue or red wire. Mix freely and often. A conflict can be just two people talking, where the hero wants some information or reaction from the other.

1. Both player and Gm states their goal in the conflict. This is the issue that should be resolved at the end of the conflict.
GM judges the opposition, what complications may arise and hides an appropriate number of threat tokens where the player cannot see them. The player takes his Capacity, minus damage, and places and equal amount of tokens on the table.

2. Decide who has initiative. This is very situational, but unless the GM totally got the drop on the hero assume that the hero always acts first. Start at either A or B. A + B is refereed to as an exchange.

A: Players Move
Decide on an appropriate Pace suited to the situation. Describes the hero's actions. Whatever the player says the hero does happen.
The actions can be of any length and can freely mix, physical, social and mental tasks (to get any Cool or Clever extras it might have to).

What the player cannot describe: An NPC's defeat. It's alright to say you empty a full clip of ammo in the gut of an enemy, but not to say that he dies of it. If the GM has no Threat left, he'll die, if not he might have been wearing a bulletproof vest and is still in the fight. Likewise the GM cannot kill the hero, only put him in more awkward situations.

The GM removes 1 Threat token and judges the quality of the description of the hero's actions.
If it was Cool, removes 1 extra token. If it was unbelievingly Cool remove 2.
If it was Clever remove 1 extra token. If it was very Clever indeed remove 2.
Totally stupid or extremely improbable actions, like trying to catch a bullet with your hand, are subject to GM penalization. You're not Neo.

The player can win any conflict by toppling the Tower. The session immediately ends.

B: GMs Move
The GM describes the opposition's actions or reactions, using the same Pace and tries to be as cool and clever as the player. The GM cannot change Pace unless the player agrees to and the situation warrants it. The GM should give some hint of how much Threat might be left, hinting at desperation, but it is also alright for the GM to have an NPC appear near-invincible until the very end.
In any conflict the GM can add a Complication to counter a move the player made that smells too much like victory. This might be police arriving on the scene, a gun that jams, an innocent bystander caught in the middle, a sudden explosion, a sudden revelation about the past, mooks suddenly barging in with guns blazing.
Lastly the GM removes 1 Capacity and converts it into a Stress point.

3. Conflict ends when either:
.
C: The GMs last Threat token is taken. The player is victorious and describes how the hero's goal is achieved. The more Capacity that remains the more flair can be added. Remove 1 Soft damage or 1 Stress token.

D: The player's last Capacity token is taken. The GM describes the player's defeat

If the GM wins the player takes Damage equal to the number of Threat tokens left, Soft or Hard depending on the situation, but no more than the Capacity the player had when the conflict began??? For each damage taken add an extra Stress point. Remember that during a conflict the GM can abuse the hero as needed, but unless the player loses the conflict no permanent damage is taken. It's all flesh wounds and broken pride.

4.
PULL!
For each Stress point the player has to pull a tile out of the Tower. If it should fall, tough luck, you're out. Next Player.

In a conflict the Players should: Try to be as Cool and Clever as possible. Think of it as a movie with a spectacular SFX budget. Improvise! You'll need to. Use the scenery! If at a construction site assume there will be tools lying around.

In a conflict the GM should; encourage shifting the conflict between physical, social and mental challenges often to avoid boring, one-sided exchanges of "I hit you, you hit me". Try to insert conversation at crucial points or puzzling revelations that make the player go "WTF?". If it does not distract from the goal, move the scene, out on the street, into a restaurant.

What it all means

Stress points
The player gets Stress when things don't go as planned. Each Stress point corresponds to one tile that has to be pulled from the Tower.

Cool
The player can take extra Threat tokens by describing the hero's actions in a cinematic and action packed way. Yes, this means that doing flipped out, improbable stunts increase your chance of victory. But doing cool things isn't the only way to earn Cool. Well timed one-liners in the midst of action also works, as is adding lots of atmospheric detail to your action. Remember that weapons doesn't let you remove extra Threat automatically, they are tools to earn extra Cool by telling in detail how you use them.

Clever
If Cool is all about description then Clever is all about brains and innovations. You get Clever by connecting the dots, using the scenery to work for you rather than against you or by dismantling a situation with a stroke of genius or well placed question. Getting clever for good roleplaying??

Damage
Damage is the fallout of lost Conflicts. Since Conflict can contain pretty much any sort of action the nature of the damage depends pretty much on the occasion. It can be pain from a fight, exhaustion, confusion or lack of confidence after an argument, but in either case it reduces Capacity. Damage can either by Soft or Hard, or a combination of the two. Soft damage only temporary and is regain at a rate of 1 at the beginning of each Conflict. Hard damage heals when the GM feels it appropriate, but it usually takes time or surgery. Each point of damage eliminates 1 point of Capacity.
Damage can be avoided by paying a Stress token to remove one damage. Describe how the hero either narrowly escapes injury or shakes it off faster.

Player tricks

Flashbacks
A flashback can be bought by pulling tiles and then removing them from the game instead of placing them at the top of the Tower. Each question answered costs three tiles. Going back to the far past takes it toll on the mind, each detail about the time before the memory loss event cost six tiles. The question can only be answered with a yes or no.
For example: "Have I meet this person before?" "Have I been here before" "Have I ever gone under the name of John?"

Overdrive
When at the brink of defeat and exhaustion the hero can push the limit just a little bit extra. When the last Capacity is taken the player can buy a new one for three Stress points and avoid defeat.

Hazard
The player can remove extra threat points by making crazy and death-defying moves. Pay one extra stress point to remove one threat point. Describe how the hero plunges forward without any regard to personal safety. If damage is taken it will probably be more Hard than Soft.

Luck points
Not all players will start play with Luck, only those beginning at a disadvantage from being wounded. When the GM reaches to take a Capacity the player may interrupt, describe how luck intervenes and forces him to take a point of Luck instead. Luck does not generate Stress points.

Conflict resolution in short
1. Goal. What is the conflict about?
GM decides on threat rating
Player removes a soft damage point.
Capacity=Capacity-damage. Place this in front of you.
2. Decide on who gets to start.
A: Players move
Describe action
Gm removes 1-5 threat depending on how Cool or Clever the move was.
B. GMs move
Describe actions or complications
Convert 1 Capacity to 1 Stress point
3. End conflict when:
Last Capacity taken. GM decides fate.
Last Threat taken. Player is victorious. Remove 1 soft damage or 1 Stress point.
4. Pull tiles equal to Stress points.

Special moves
Overdrive: Buy 1 Capacity for 3 Stress
Hazard: Remove 1 Threat for 1 Stress
Avoid damage: Pay 1 Stress per damage
Flashback: Ask a question, pull tiles and remove them from the game


Things that could be a problem:

You don't take damage inside a conflict, only after it. You often see actionheroes take a lot of punishment, then just shake it off in the next scene, but it might be percieved as illogical.

Starting each player on an equal ground despite carry-over damage from previous player. Hopefully I'll find a good balance through gametesting this.

Too complicated rules for such a short gameplay.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

So what do the players who aren't playing the character or being the GM do in the meantime?

Peace,

-Troy

[Uriel]

There is only one player at a time. Play with one until the Tower falls, grab a new player who will start where the previous one left off. Ideally this will be at a cliffhanger.

Remember that scene from Memento where he's running on a parking lot, parallel to another guy and he's unsure of who is chasing who, makes a split second decision that he must be the chaser and promptly gets shot at? Those are the kind of moments I want.

Course that might be funnier for me than for the players.

Ok, so that's one thing that needs to be clearer in the presentation; that there is only one player.

[Thunder_God]

Flashbacks
A flashback can be bought by pulling tiles and then removing them from the game instead of placing them at the top of the Tower. Each question answered costs three tiles. Going back to the far past takes it toll on the mind, each detail about the time before the memory loss event cost six tiles. The question can only be answered with a yes or no.
For example: "Have I meet this person before?" "Have I been here before" "Have I ever gone under the name of John?"

I don't follow what results in a 3 pull and what results in a 6 pull. Unless you mean what I'm about to suggest: A short ambiguous flashback, like knowing you were at a certain place before costs X pulls, a question that has you seeing a detailed flashback(You were walking here with person X, doing Y till Z happenned!) costs 2*X Pulls.

Too complicated rules for such a short gameplay.

Fuck that I say, make the necessary rules and don't shirk them. For all you know each player could last a full 3 hours, creating "Sessions".

[Uriel]

Ok, I've playtested it a little now and found several problems that needs to be fixed. (maybe I should move this to the playtest forum...)

Firstly it's too slow, meaning it takes too many conflicts to topple the Tower. A fix for this could be that the player gets a point of soft damage each round plus a Stress point. Since the damage can be avoided by taking a Stress point and saying how you avoid it you'll most probably take 2 Stress instead of 1 each round.

Second problem is players who are too unimaginative and careful to earn any Cool or Clever. It felt like my descision to redice threat was way to arbitrary and more based on me feeling sorry for the player than based on the player's imagination. I'd love if it players would go Wushu on me and totally flip out with over-the-top action moves, but the people I've played with so far didn't have that mindset and I can't teach it in a an hour and a half session. So I'm thinking about losing the Cool/Clever mechanic and replacing that with a dice mechanic that is risk based. It would be disconnected from what you did, what you say you do is still what you do, but the dice roll would decide how much threat was reduced (a la Wushu). Maybe like this: You can roll between 1-5 dice. Each dice you roll increases the diff, each success removes one threat. So roll 1 die, fail on 6, roll 3 dice, fail on 4-6. So many dice more gain but also more risk. And I wouldn't have to sit and judge the quality of the players imagination.

Third problem is clearer rules for ending conflicts. I had several players who judged their tower too shaky and wanted to end conflicts prematurely and give control over the character to me. They played it safe and I practicaly had to ambush them to get them into a conflict.

Flashbacks
A flashback can be bought by pulling tiles and then removing them from the game instead of placing them at the top of the Tower. Each question answered costs three tiles. Going back to the far past takes it toll on the mind, each detail about the time before the memory loss event cost six tiles. The question can only be answered with a yes or no.
For example: "Have I meet this person before?" "Have I been here before" "Have I ever gone under the name of John?"

I don't follow what results in a 3 pull and what results in a 6 pull. Unless you mean what I'm about to suggest: A short ambiguous flashback, like knowing you were at a certain place before costs X pulls, a question that has you seeing a detailed flashback(You were walking here with person X, doing Y till Z happenned!) costs 2*X Pulls.

And neither did anyone I played with. I still only want questions that only can be answered with yes/no, otherwise the Memento feeling will slip too much. But there will be details with that answer, you see it in a context that makes sense. Maybe 2*X pulls for broad questions, like:"was I ever a CIA agent" or "did I kill Laura Palmer" and question like "Have I meet Mr.X before?" or "Have I been here before?" is just X. But the cost would depend pretty much on the question, some asked by players were quite meaningless and wasn't really helpful.

I've got a really evil twist for the scenario now. Pure genius if I might say so myself, it'll make the players doubt the heros sanity and eventually their own.