Quintessence

[Castlin]

Hello All,

I am looking for some feedback on one of my evolving efforts, currently called Quintessence. It is a relatively simple gaming system based around the notion I had one day that most character resources can be "boiled down" to one core concept/resource. That may be magic or grit or ki or stealth or secrets or humanity any number of things, but often everything a character is/does springs from this one central concept/resource.

Anyway, here are my working rules:

http://www.rollinitiative.com/chimera/index.php/Quintessence

I've had a few playtests under previous revisions, but none under the new stuff there.

Here are my pointed questions:

1) I am certain there are things in the rules which need clarification. Is there anything you don't understand there? What is confusing about it? I often have the problem that I know exactly how something is supposed to work but cannot explain it clearly.

2) Connections are very... bad right now. Both in the looseness of their choice (I had one session where two characters chose each other as connections they loved, so they were serving that connection A LOT) and the need for the GM deciding when a connection has been "meaningfully served". I would like to have some kind of system where the character "invests" quintessence in a situation or for a certain amount of time with the possibility of getting some CP out of it... that means the character is in control of what "meaningfully served" is.

3) Do you see glaring exploits? Massively munchkinable areas?

Thanks for your help with this, and of course I appreciate any input beyond thoughts on those three questions specifically.

[Jason Morningstar]

Hi Castlin,

What you are doing with Quintessence strongly reminds me of The Shadow of Yesterday, and that's a good thing.  Quintessence as a game currency seems to operate like mini-Keys in a TSOY context. 

I'd challenge your assertion about Connections.  The general tone of your post makes me think that you are concerned about giving players too much power - if this is accurate, you might want to consider looking at games that don't place heavy restrictions on player contributions.  Coming back to TSOY, I immediately thought of two characters who have the Key of Love for one another - they'd be raking in the XP!  It'd be awesome, the players would be having fun hitting on things that matter to them, and the session would be better for it.  Letting your player control what is meaningful is powerful and fantastic - a feature, not a bug, in my opinion.

Your document seems readable and pretty straightforward.  The setting examples really help.

Let me know what you think, and definitely take a look at TSOY if you have not yet. 

--Jason

[Jason Morningstar]

Agh, can't edit, I meant to say that Quintessence as a currency is like a bunch of mini-secrets.  Connections are Key-like.  I think.  Anyway, rock on. 

[Jason Morningstar]

Some more comments:

Connections are CP engines.  You earn CP for hitting Connections, more Connections means more CP, and they are reasonably priced (9, 12, 15 - 36 CP spent and you have six Connections, not a bad deal).  That's the same cost as buying 6 +3 Traits, but it's a gift that keeps on giving.  Bug or feature?  You decide, but I'd definitely encourage more Connections.  Do you get a big juicy bonus if you get rid of or resolve a Connection? 

I'm assuming you add the die value of Quintessence you add to a roll?

Initiative seems unnecessary.  Can you explain what it's value is?  Breaking up conflicts into arbitrary rounds also doesn't seem to add anything - can't one conflict just lead into another? 

[Castlin]

Thank you, Mr. Morningstar.

Do you get a big juicy bonus if you get rid of or resolve a Connection?

Interesting idea!

I'm assuming you add the die value of Quintessence you add to a roll?

Yes. I should spell that out more clearly then.

Initiative seems unnecessary.

Potentially true, but look at the name of my website!

I will check out the Shadow of Yesterday; thanks for that pointer.

I will try to put together some more setting examples, since you found those helpful.

[Altharis]

Hey Castlin, I like your system, it's cute and simple.
Raking XP of connections is really good as it avoids traditional, "Only care about #1" roleplaying, forcing characters to have some higher power to defer to. (or lower power to lord over)
I have to agree withevrything Jason Morningstar has said so far, as I was confused with the same things too.
With what do you roll iniative, for example?

One suggestion for a campaign setting is a fantasy setting, as I'm going to be using this to teach some newbies how to play, and some generic fantasy would be good.

Overall a very nice system,
Altharis

[Castlin]

One suggestion for a campaign setting is a fantasy setting, as I'm going to be using this to teach some newbies how to play, and some generic fantasy would be good.

Here is something to start with, at least. I hope you enjoy it, and I think it's pretty awesome you're going to use the game to teach some new players gaming!