[What a Shambles!] Points mean Prizes

[iain]

Hello again folks,
'What a Shambles!' comes on apace and is almost ready for playtesting, anyone interested?. However I am stuck on one element of the game. I want the system to allow players to score points for killing zombies and completeing their long term objectives, allowing participants to essentially be a bit tactical about the game and 'win'. Completeing an objective, like successfully asking a girl out on a date, gives you 50 points and killing zombies gives you 1 point each. People can also award points via a quick vote to cool pieces of narration. Do you think I should award points for anything else? I was also thinking of short term and group objectives that could be set at the start of each scene, but I think these may be a bit over the top. Also does anyone know of any games that do something similar, mixing a points based awards system into a narrative arena?
Cheers
Iain

[Adam Dray]

Points are just currency. You can use them to advance or support any Creative Agenda. Can you give us a sample of what play might be like?

[iain]

I haven't playtested yet but I can give you a basic idea.
The game is set up in scenes, defined by the start of game or a major change in location. There is no GM. At the start of the game their will be one or two protagonists, portrayed by whoever chooses to round the table. The scene location is defined by the protagonist player, and the other players may elaborate on the scene in various ways, including the level of zombie threat. During a scene a protagonist will try and advance their own objective through narration, which is taken in turn clockwise round the table.

During a given player's narration, any other player round the table can block it on a narrative basis, similar to the way 'Polaris' does things, which may be accepted or rejected by the narrating player. They may also add threat to their blocking of the narrative.

Threat comes from a central pool, that represents the zombie threat in the area, and has a variety of rules attached to its creation which I will not go into here. A player may give the narrator up to 5 pool, which he must defeat in a more mechanical way by using love, guts or weapons, which form simple dice pools. If this personal threat is not defeated in a turn, by the narrator or other players chipping in, the protagonist will be zombified!

Right, so a typical scene would consist of the protagonist(s) describing where they are, the others creating the rest of the scene, and then the protagonists overcoming challenges until they move scene. Other protagonists may be brought in by narration, who may, or may not be, taken up by one of the players.

Hope that helps

Point wise, I was basically looking for a way to score how much a player has contributed to the story, even though they may flip between protagonists several times over the course of play. I also am working on a 'Drop in, Drop out' mechanic whereby people can leave and join the game very easily, and so I would like to be able to score their contribution as well. In this case the points are not just used in the obtaining of the creative agenda, they are a way for a given player to see how much they contributed to the game, and whether or not they were 'better' than the other players, no matter how many there may be over the course of a game.

This is probably not the best of explanations as I haven't seen it in play myself yet, but i hope it helps answer your enquiry.

Cheers
Iain

[Zach]

Point wise, I was basically looking for a way to score how much a player has contributed to the story, even though they may flip between protagonists several times over the course of play. I also am working on a 'Drop in, Drop out' mechanic whereby people can leave and join the game very easily, and so I would like to be able to score their contribution as well. In this case the points are not just used in the obtaining of the creative agenda, they are a way for a given player to see how much they contributed to the game, and whether or not they were 'better' than the other players, no matter how many there may be over the course of a game.

Couldn't something like this be tracked on a sheet of scrap paper, with each player having a current pool of points and a lifetime achievement total? To deal with the aspect where each player may switch between protagonists, score each scene individually and have point totals travel with the player rather than with specific characters.

If a heavy structure is your thing, the quick votes for discretionary bonus points could take place in this between scene limbo as well.

How about this for an alternate way to gain points: Shaun, hoping to show his manly, take charge attitude proposes that everyone follows him to a safe place -- the local pub. It's a wild divergence from the group plan, and thus risky. As a result the zombie pool increases by an amount equal to how opposed the other players are to the plan. If Shaun succeeds, he receives a point bonus that is tied to the earlier opposition.

One concern that I have is for players who join the game near the end. They will have full love/guts/weapons levels while the zombie pool continually dwindles. Mechanically the late-game player will have no problem overcoming their challenges, but they will need to act fast if they want some sort of story award.

Then again, if the zombie pool doesn't dwindle, but grows as the zombie plague intensifies...

Zach.