[Robots & Rapiers Playtest] A Simple Letter

[Thor Olavsrud]

Hi Ralph,

Some thoughts following our first session of Robots & Rapiers:
1. We had a good deal of fun, which is unusual and a pleasant surprise for a playtest. Everyone seemed to enjoy the rules.
2. The Inhuman Features were a hit. We'd like to suggest some space on the character sheet to record them.
3. Spending successes was also loved by all. Again, a quick reference on the character sheet would be helpful.
4. A great deal is made about upgrade slots in the anthropoid class section, but I couldn't seem to find anything about it after. Maybe it was in the Interlude section?
5. Is there a way to change your Anthropoid Class? In either direction?
6. Is it possible to increase your Core Programs and Knowledge Programs scores?

In more detail:
We got together on Thursday to give Robots & Rapiers a go. Despite the fact that you sent us the text several weeks ago, I picked up and plowed through all 360 pages between Wednesday and our session on Thursday. I retained a good bit, but was not quite as solid with the rules as I would have liked. Mayuran managed to get through about 30% of the book. John, Drozdal and Alexander had not had a chance to read it.

I decided to go with the first sample scenario, A Simple Letter, and printed out the Band of Four. I gave them to the players based on who I thought they would least identify with. Alexander got Burgiss, the strong simpleton; Drozdal got Alfredo, the rakish swashbuckler; John got Charles, the brooding swashbuckler; and Mayuran got Devon, the annoying intellectual. However, I really felt they needed to understand a number of concepts from the game before we could really get started. We thus spent about 2.5 hours going over the setting and rules: role, anthropoid class, hardware, programming, traits, Role Tests, Self Awareness Tests, basic mechanics, faux damage and malfunctions. I skipped over the Wealth, Favors and Interlude rules because I had the least grasp on them myself, and they didn't seem that essential to getting the session started.

At that point, Alexander felt that he couldn't absorb any more without playing, so we agreed to start the scenario.

We started off with the dinner party at Madam Beauvais' salon. I described the scene, explaining that Madam Beauvais was an eager social climber, and she had invited Alfredo because it was rumored that he had created a stir at court after seducing and then spurning Comtesse de ... Alfredo, of course, made sure to bring along his inseparable companions and fellow King's Guards, Burgiss, Devon and Charles. As they entered, the foppish Captain Etienne Pomeroy had the attention of the aging but wealthy Lady Margaret Duvaine and the young and very beautiful Aimee Beauvais.

Alexander immediately had Burgiss attempt to foil Captain Pomeroy's flirtation by rolling his Carousing (Drinking to Excess) vs. Durability to cause a scene. The NPCs weren't statted, so I fell back on the Running the NPCs rules on page 269. I decided that he would use Persuasion (Flirt) vs. Processor to continue his attempts on the ladies, keeping their attention from the boorish behavior exhibited by Burgiss. I gave Pomeroy a Persuasion of 6 and a Processor of 5.

At that point, Drozdal decided that he wished Alfredo to make an Augmentation roll by calling attention to Burgiss and making a toast to the king's health. He rolled his Oratory (Toast Making) vs. Processor. I didn't want to make the first roll too complicated, so I decided not to have anyone use a Charge to oppose Alfredo. Drozdal managed two successes and spent them to give Burgiss a +1D Persistent Bonus. After such a fine toast, the other partygoers would at least pay attention to what Burgiss had to say.

Alexander and I then rolled. We each managed 5 successes. We were a bit unclear what we should do in the case of a tie. I ruled that Pomeroy had successfully blocked Burgiss' attempt to steal his thunder, but wasn't sure whether Pomeroy had thus taken Initiative, or if it should be up for Bid. In fact, I'm slightly confused about Charges and Bids in general.
1. I think that Charges = Anthropoid Class? I couldn't find it in the book when the issue came up, but that's what I seemed to remember.
2. Is a successful "block" enough to take Initiative, or would Pomeroy have had to generate net successes in order to take Initiative for free?
3. Can you bid more than 1 Charge to take Initiative? Am I correct that the tie-breaker stuff is all about who gets to make the first bid? If so, it seems that low Anthropoid Class robots are doubly penalized. They have less Charge than high Anthropoid Class robots AND they have to allow high Anthropoid Class robots to bid first. For example, hypothetically, Burgiss and Pomeroy both wish to bid for the next initiative. Burgiss is Type 2 and Pomeroy is Type 3. Thus Pomeroy, with 3 Charge, gets to bid 1 Charge first, because he has the higher Anthropoid Class. Now Burgiss has to bid all his Charge to take initiative. Pomeroy could even have bid 2 Charge immediately, and locked Burgiss out.
4. I assume that Charge used to bid for Initiative is spent for that turn, and does not come back until the next Initiative phase?

Getting back to the contest at hand, I wound up calling for tests vs. Processor for the majority of the social conflict tests. Was that the right call? A few more examples and guidelines about which Hardware to use in different kinds of tests could be helpful.

We decided to give the Initiative to Pomeroy. I had Pomeroy use Oratory (Bon Mot) vs. Processor in an attempt to shame Bugiss for his drunkeness as his Action Roll. "Ze king dotes on his guard, but zey are little more zan undisciplined ruffians! Just look at zis one's drunkeness. He iz a disgrace!"

Burgiss Opposed with Persuasion (Charm) vs. Processor to come up with a witty retort that would make the ladies giggle.

Alfredo spent a Charge to Augment Burgiss with Etiquette (Fashion) vs. Processor to disparage the elegantly dressed Captain Pomeroy's fashion sense.

Again, I chose not to make things too complicated, so I did not spend any Charge to oppose Alfredo. Drozdal managed 3 successes, and he granted them all to Alexander as temporary bonus. Alexander and I then rolled, and I managed 2 net successes, which I used to eliminate the Persistent bonus placed on Pomeroy in the first exchange.

At that point, Madam Beauvais, noting the sharp exchange and Burgiss' unfortunate drunkeness, gestured to her footman, Ephraim Pollock, who convinced Burgiss to go with him in search of a cup of coffee.

Meanwhile, Devon and Charles were exchanging barbs with the puffed up windbag, Baron Anselme Averill. It went so far that Devon maneuvered Charles into insulting the baron, who wiped his monocle and asked if they should call for seconds. Realizing that even Captain Trebone wouldn't be able to extract Charles from the Cardinal's clutches if he were caught dueling with (or god forbid, killing) a baron, Devon decided to put a stop to what he had started.

Mayuran used Oratory (Debate) vs. Processor for his Action Roll in an attempt to calm both Charles and the baron.

John had Charles Oppose with Persuasion (Intimidation) vs. Force to intimidate the baron into backing down from the duel. I wasn't sure that this was exactly a fair opposition. We clarified that John wanted the duel, but he also wanted to make the baron a little cowed by his ferocity.

The baron spent a Charge to augment Devon with Oratory (Bombast) vs. Processor, suggesting that Devon should bring his friend to heel. The baron managed 3 net successes and gave them all to Devon as temporary bonus. With the additional dice, Devon managed 4 net successes, which he used to apply a +1D persistent difficulty to anyone in the room who wished to goad someone to violence.

John decided to have Charles back down, ending the conflict.

Dro then decided that it was time to have Alfredo make a play for Aimee. He decided to ask Madam Beauvais to dance in order to make Aimee jealous. His Action roll was Etiquette (Dance) vs. Locomotion.

Aimee Opposed with Persuasion (Flirt) vs. Articulation to cast come hither looks at Alfredo to inflame his desire immediately.

Mayuran spent a point of Charge to allow Devon to Augment using Administration (Military) vs. Processor to distract Pomeroy with an argument about military procedure, taking away Aimee's admirer and some of her confidence.

I had Pomeroy spend a point of Charge to Oppose Devon with Persuasion (Flirt) vs. Processor to bring the conversation back to Aimee.

Devon had 2 net successes. He spent 1 to give himself a +1D temporary bonus vs. Pomeroy and the other to give Alfredo a +1D temporary bonus vs. Aimee.

Then Dro and I rolled. Aimee managed 3 net successes. She spent 2 to give herself a persistent +1D bonus against Alfredo, and the last success to give Alfredo +1D temporary difficulty in resisting her.

Aimee took the Initiative. As her action, she used Persuasion (Flirt) vs. Articulation to get Alfredo to spurn her mother and come to her.

Drozdal had Alfredo Oppose with Deceit (Lie) vs. Articulation to suggest with body language that he was more interested in Madam Beauvais.

Aimee managed 4 net successes (after Drozdal elected to take his two 1s as Inspiration rather than successes), which she used to give everyone in the room +1D Persistent difficulty  to resisting her charm.

In the kitchens, Ephraim poured  Burgiss a cup of coffee. Burgiss finally decided to ask Ephraim what all the sighing and looking at his watch was about (I'd been playing it up). Ephraim then explained that his love was waiting for him at this very moment, but the unexpected party Madam had thrown meant that he couldn't leave. Could Burgiss please take this letter to her? Unable to resist the romance of it all, Burgiss swears to deliver the letter.

Alexander said Burgiss was going to jump up and head straight to the rendezvous. Wanting to make sure that he took his companions with him, I told Alexander to take 1 Inspiration as I made a Role Test. I succeeded (of course, since Burgiss' role score is still 10), and told Alexander that Burgiss was going to gather his companions for this little adventure. Was this a fair use of the Role Test? Alexander wasn't exactly making a test...

And that's where we cut it for the night, after about an hour or so of play. I'll come back with some further thoughts later, but hopefully the rest of the gang will stop by and post their thoughts. Anything you'd like to explore in more detail, Ralph?

[Valamir]

Awesome!

2. The Inhuman Features were a hit. We'd like to suggest some space on the character sheet to record them.

Yeah, I totally suck at making character sheets.  There's alot of stuff missing that should be on them.

3. Spending successes was also loved by all. Again, a quick reference on the character sheet would be helpful.

And probably a malfunction table too.

4. A great deal is made about upgrade slots in the anthropoid class section, but I couldn't seem to find anything about it after. Maybe it was in the Interlude section?
5. Is there a way to change your Anthropoid Class? In either direction?

These are as yet un(der) developed.  In the very very original version of the game, characters were created like Car Wars vehicles by buying a chassis and then equiping it with lots of gagets and gizmos...way cool for flavor (designing Car Wars cars is more fun than actually playing the game) but a total pita for designing NPCs.  The concept of upgrades stuck though.

Currently the idea is to allow robots to canibalize other robots hardware to boost their own hardware scores and allow Spark mechanics to develop Non Tapestry gadgetry (like secret compartments built into the shell, or on board GPS scanners, and the like).  But rules haven't been written for that yet.

Anthropoid Class cannot currently be improved (but potentially one could see a robot installing its brain in another robots body...).  I envision it being reduced by adding too many upgrades and making your robot look less human and thus "lower class".

All of the benefits of Anthropoid Class, however, can be gained by increasing ones Self Awareness (through the Influence stat).

6. Is it possible to increase your Core Programs and Knowledge Programs scores?

yes, in the same manner as increasing your other Skill Programs (by spending Inpsiration).  That should be in the Transformation section of the rules, if it isn't.

The NPCs weren't statted, so I fell back on the Running the NPCs rules on page 269

Totally an oversight on my part.  But I take it, it wasn't too hard to wing...

1. I think that Charges = Anthropoid Class? I couldn't find it in the book when the issue came up, but that's what I seemed to remember.

Charge = Influence which (in the version you have) equals the greater of Anthropoid Class or 1/2 Self Awareness...which means for starting characters, yes = Anthropoid Class

2. Is a successful "block" enough to take Initiative, or would Pomeroy have had to generate net successes in order to take Initiative for free?

Somewhere I think I made that explicit, but I've rewritten that section so many times I can't remember if I left that text in the current version.  Yes, bringing the acting robot's successes down to 0 is a successful opposition allowing Pomeroy to take the Initiative.

3. Can you bid more than 1 Charge to take Initiative? Am I correct that the tie-breaker stuff is all about who gets to make the first bid? If so, it seems that low Anthropoid Class robots are doubly penalized. They have less Charge than high Anthropoid Class robots AND they have to allow high Anthropoid Class robots to bid first. For example, hypothetically, Burgiss and Pomeroy both wish to bid for the next initiative. Burgiss is Type 2 and Pomeroy is Type 3. Thus Pomeroy, with 3 Charge, gets to bid 1 Charge first, because he has the higher Anthropoid Class. Now Burgiss has to bid all his Charge to take initiative. Pomeroy could even have bid 2 Charge immediately, and locked Burgiss out.
4. I assume that Charge used to bid for Initiative is spent for that turn, and does not come back until the next Initiative phase?

The buying Initiative rules are broken.  I've completely scrapped them.  The way I'm currently trying is to give each robot an "initiative token" (which could be a token, or just a check mark on a written list).  It basically works the same way except instead of spending Charge to bid, you spend the token.  If more than one robot wants the next initiative, ties are broken by most Influence then randomly.  When everybody has spent their token, or nobody who has one wants to, the tokens refresh.

Getting back to the contest at hand, I wound up calling for tests vs. Processor for the majority of the social conflict tests. Was that the right call? A few more examples and guidelines about which Hardware to use in different kinds of tests could be helpful.

Processor will come up alot.  Memory is also a good one...one is fully allowed to "remember" something about one of the other characters, or "remember" a love poem that can be recited or "remember" the last time you tried to seduce Aimee and why it ended in disastor.  Perception is also a good one to notice something about how the other party is feeling paired with Persuasion (empathy), or Observation (Detail) to notice something about the other party to complement or ridicule.

I got tired of rewriting a horde of examples every time I rewrote the mechanics...and that's a great way to wind up with legacy issues in one's example texts...so I decided to scrap all but the most essential mechanical examples until the rules are finalized...but yes...many more are needed.  I hoping actually to steal examples right from playtest reports.

...snip...

Some excellent uses of robots making Augmenting Rolls to help other characters.  I was hoping that the system would encourage that sort of teamwork.

Alexander said Burgiss was going to jump up and head straight to the rendezvous. Wanting to make sure that he took his companions with him, I told Alexander to take 1 Inspiration as I made a Role Test. I succeeded (of course, since Burgiss' role score is still 10), and told Alexander that Burgiss was going to gather his companions for this little adventure. Was this a fair use of the Role Test? Alexander wasn't exactly making a test...

Totally fair.  In fact, I envision that to be the main use early on.  It is essentially the tool the GM is instructed to use to rail road the players through the planned scenario, in the same way that their programming rail roads the robots through the various story lines.

One of the aspects I really look forward to seeing is the direction players take the characters once they start breaking down that Role Score.  For instance Burgiss has a Trait regarding his relationship to Alfredo.  I'm hoping that some players will wind up replacing that programmed "side kick" role with a genuine honest friendship for Alfredo...while other players playing Burgiss will start to resent the smug bastard.  Much of that develop will come not only from the players own concepts but how and when the GM employed Role as a ramrod during play.

And that's where we cut it for the night, after about an hour or so of play. I'll come back with some further thoughts later, but hopefully the rest of the gang will stop by and post their thoughts. Anything you'd like to explore in more detail, Ralph?

How was the handling time with the rolls.  I'm a huge fan of dice pool systems, but I intentionally designed R&R to be strict Task Resolution with frequent incremental rolls to generate bonuses.  I found the time to search for the number of dice to roll, count out that number of dice, search for the target number, and then count the number of successes (which normally I have no problem with) starts to bog things down with the volume of rolls there is to be made.  I want the system to be snappy...how did you find the actual mechanics of rolling the dice to be (aside from the usual first game looking up rules slow down)?

I'm working on an alternate dice mechanic that fixes the number of dice for all robots to equal their Influence (so no more counting out how many dice to roll) and then takes just the single best roll (so no more counting out successes)...where single best roll is the die that rolls highest without going over your Skill Program level.  The result on that die is then the number of "successes" you get to spend.  Bonuses then, instead of adding dice, increase the target number.  Under this system, the Hardware Attributes (currently rated between 3 and are replaced with a scale of 0-3 and used just like quality bonuses from gear.

[drozdal]

Hey Ralph!

The only think we (i?) had a litte trouble with was comming up with the narrative descriptions after conflicts.
As for now there are no guidelines for how roudbust, big or small should those be. IIRC rules say that the more succeses you won by, the more freedom with narration you have. I think that little table with examples corresponding to number of succeses conflict was won by would really help with this. Otherwise it will be hit and miss untill we will familiarize ourselves with the rules enough to be relally confortable with the narration scope.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Charge = Influence which (in the version you have) equals the greater of Anthropoid Class or 1/2 Self Awareness...which means for starting characters, yes = Anthropoid Class

Ah! I'm glad you mentioned that. I almost forgot: On page 30, the text agrees with the above. On page 97, it says that Influence "equals the greater of either the robot's Anthropoid Class +3 or its Self Awareness score."

I figured the latter was an artifact.

How was the handling time with the rolls.  I'm a huge fan of dice pool systems, but I intentionally designed R&R to be strict Task Resolution with frequent incremental rolls to generate bonuses.  I found the time to search for the number of dice to roll, count out that number of dice, search for the target number, and then count the number of successes (which normally I have no problem with) starts to bog things down with the volume of rolls there is to be made.  I want the system to be snappy...how did you find the actual mechanics of rolling the dice to be (aside from the usual first game looking up rules slow down)?

I'm working on an alternate dice mechanic that fixes the number of dice for all robots to equal their Influence (so no more counting out how many dice to roll) and then takes just the single best roll (so no more counting out successes)...where single best roll is the die that rolls highest without going over your Skill Program level.  The result on that die is then the number of "successes" you get to spend.  Bonuses then, instead of adding dice, increase the target number.  Under this system, the Hardware Attributes (currently rated between 3 and are replaced with a scale of 0-3 and used just like quality bonuses from gear.

We actually found the handling time to be quite low. Granted, we are veterans of Burning Wheel, The Riddle of Steel, Sorcerer, Dogs in the Vineyard, and other games that also require a lot of dice manipulation. We didn't find it jarring at all. It seemed pretty quick and intuitive. As Burning Wheel players, we also appreciated the ability to hand our dice around when we gave bonuses or difficulty, and the ability to use differently colored dice to tell whether it was the skill or the bonus/difficulty/equipment that made the difference in the successes.

I also appreciate the ritual of canceling out successes by discarding, and then having the net success dice in front of me, which I can place as I spend them.

I'm sure the others will share their opinions as well.

As for the point that Dro brought up, I agree. Additionally, I can't cite page numbers at the moment, but I recall discussion in various places of things like Goals or Intent. I think that text was a little muddy. It might be beneficial to consolidate that stuff with Special Effects, and really highlight the Intent aspect of Special Effects. Does that make sense?

[Robotech_Master]

Is there some reason this is on the Universalis board? It doesn't seem to be talking about Universalis as far as I can tell.

[Valamir]

Robots & Rapiers is the next game coming out from Ramshead

[Iskander]

Some (very) quick thoughts:

- I really liked the way the Role check worked for Burgiss - I should totally have gone and rounded the rest of the Band of Four up, so I needed the reminder, and I learnt and earned - sweet!
- I was mildly concerned that there's the potential for a player to play a mechanically very strategic game early on, and end up being a dick: lots of anti-Role narration just to build inspiration and start fuelling the drive to self-awareness. Thor was more of the opinion that such a scenario would be covered by New Rule Zero: don't be a dick. We'll see on Thursday.
- The transformation process looks really awesome. I can't wait to get my first spark.
- How do are ties resolved?
- Handling time was good for me. As Thor mentions, ending up with actual dice that are my successes made choosing how to spend them easy.
- Initiative was burdensome for me... there seemed to be a lot of rules for benefit; the streamlined token system you mention sounds more elegant and easy. (Let's try it, Thor!) (Also, my bad for not getting time to read the rules first.)
- There was a lot to take in after a day's work, already, and at one point (as Thor says) I was just full up. I couldn't internalise any more. When you get examples, they'll ease that process, but I wondered also, if there's a minimum-you-need-to-know-to-start-to-play for players in there.
- The way Role checks worked was cool: that Thor could say "Nope. You do something else." would normally have been very aggravating, but instead, both because his alternative had to be "in character", and because I got mechanical benefit that drove towards my evolution, it was fine! I found myself looking at traits and thinking "how can I manipulate this to my advantage for my next Role check?" Fun.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to picking Burgiss back up on Thursday.

[Valamir]

Excellent.

I had the same fear regarding gaming the Role Checks...but I decided that was my own fear talking and that a "Rule Zero" (that's nice) approach would handle it.  There is something of a "let it ride" approach as well allowing a whole range of "asshattery" to be quashed once

[Mike Holmes]

He musta fell asleep typing...

Watching with interest,
Mike

[jenskot]

How was the handling time with the rolls.  I'm a huge fan of dice pool systems, but I intentionally designed R&R to be strict Task Resolution with frequent incremental rolls to generate bonuses.  I found the time to search for the number of dice to roll, count out that number of dice, search for the target number, and then count the number of successes (which normally I have no problem with) starts to bog things down with the volume of rolls there is to be made.  I want the system to be snappy...how did you find the actual mechanics of rolling the dice to be (aside from the usual first game looking up rules slow down)?

I'm working on an alternate dice mechanic that fixes the number of dice for all robots to equal their Influence (so no more counting out how many dice to roll) and then takes just the single best roll (so no more counting out successes)...where single best roll is the die that rolls highest without going over your Skill Program level.  The result on that die is then the number of "successes" you get to spend.  Bonuses then, instead of adding dice, increase the target number.  Under this system, the Hardware Attributes (currently rated between 3 and are replaced with a scale of 0-3 and used just like quality bonuses from gear.

I enjoyed the handling time. The only moment of hesitation that I observed was determining which Hardware Attribute to use as the Skill Program Target Number. But factoring in a learning curve, and adjusting for Hardware Attribute naming conventions it might not be too cumbersome. We also haven't taken damage yet which may have an impact on handling time.

Pretty much everyone covered what I wanted to say. I enjoyed the setting and system.

So far I'm pretty happy with my Role. I'd want to change the brooding part but I'm ok with being bipolar. I could definitely see myself reinforcing aspects of my Role as I gain Self Awareness.

[Valamir]

Heh. actually Mike, I just forgot the period.  What I was trying to say was that "Your Role prevents you from acting beligerantly to your superiors" only needs to be checked once and then it "rides" until the robot achieves another level of Self Awareness.  Meaning the GM can continue to enforce that check without needing to give any additional Inspiration.  The player, could make a Self Awareness check to act beligerantly to a specific person in a specific situation, however.

Good news on the handling time.  I figured you guys would have less issue with it given your BW background...if it was too much for you all, I'd really be in trouble.  One of the things I'm really liking about the revised mechanic I'm working on is going to a fixed die pool based on Influence and then treating the Hardware Scores (i.e. Attributes) as just modifiers that can be called on...so having high quality Articulation works the same as having a high quality rapier.  I'm not yet sold on the "best single die" vs. "count successes" method of reading the dice...the end result is similar but a bit more squirrely.  The chance for a big blow out success even on a small die pool seems to be a plus, but will need to test it to be sure.

I'm a big fan of the Transformation Rules, I think they accomplish exactly the design goal of the game...hopefully they'll actually be fun in practice as a sort of "level up" system.  The math behind the Inspiration costs is something to watch.  Only actual play will determine how fast Inspiration is really accumulated and then spent vs. how fast I think it will be.  Those numbers may be too slow / too fast.

Ties "go to the defender" so to speak.  The burden is on the acting robot to achieve a net success to accomplish their action so preventing that from happening is all the defender needs to do...more just gives them added bonuses to spend.


Other things to watch for: 

a) is the concept of difficulty giving a bonus to your opponent rather than a penalty to you intuitive enough?  It got pretty convoluted trying to explain it in the text at times but my goal was to make a player mechanically neutral on it.  You give a 2 bonus to your self you get +2 dice.  You give a 2 difficulty to your opponent you get +2 dice.

b) Favor and Wealth makes me nervous.  I like the tables for Wealth, it was fun going through the starting characters and discovering how big a house they own and how nice their wardrobe was.  And it should be pretty easy to look that up for NPCs when it becomes necessary.  But making the rolls to buy stuff I'm a bit shaky on.  The original intent was to avoid the hassle of tracking coins and spending by making purchases a simple test roll.  But the system might actually be more of a pain than simply tracking coins.  The Favor system I'm pretty excited about...make a roll and get someone to do something for you sounds fun to me...and accumulating people who will do stuff for you (and then having to maintain that relationship over time) gives players a goal to shoot for.  But actually using it in play is the least tested part of the system so far.

c) The Interlude.  You guys should run your first Interlude after you wrap up a Secret Letter.  Its the system that allows the characters to get involved in all of the meta faction goings on in the city.  I'm pretty sure the math behind the faction strengths works out...I tested that fairly heavily...but I need to know 1) whether the fluctuations of the various factions is interesting enough to be fun and provides the GM with enough "news headlines" to describe the mood of the setting, and 2) whether the menu of options the player robots have (the Activities) is compelling.  Right now I'm thinking there are way too many and they need to be cut down and simplified dramatically, but its hard to say.  Also, the language describing what to do is pretty rough at this point.  I think some procedural streamlining is likely needed for the whole process but I'm not sure what to start taking the hedge trimmers to yet.

[drozdal]

c) The Interlude.  You guys should run your first Interlude after you wrap up a Secret Letter.  Its the system that allows the characters to get involved in all of the meta faction goings on in the city.  I'm pretty sure the math behind the faction strengths works out...I tested that fairly heavily...but I need to know 1) whether the fluctuations of the various factions is interesting enough to be fun and provides the GM with enough "news headlines" to describe the mood of the setting, and 2) whether the menu of options the player robots have (the Activities) is compelling.  Right now I'm thinking there are way too many and they need to be cut down and simplified dramatically, but its hard to say.  Also, the language describing what to do is pretty rough at this point.  I think some procedural streamlining is likely needed for the whole process but I'm not sure what to start taking the hedge trimmers to yet.

Thanx Ralph, I'm in charge of all the "macro mechanic" (we broke the manuscripts by sections and each of the players took one part with him home - so he can explain it to the rest of the gropu) and thanx for all those points above - all this will help me out a lot while assimilating the rules.

PS. I have a little present for you, but you have to wait until i get back home.

[Iskander]

a) I was still a bit fuzzy on the precise nomenclature, although the core system seemed natural and clear to me. I like the elegance of the choice available in how you can spend successes. It reminded me of what I like about Nine Worlds' point captures.

b), c) This week, we've all got homework to review a chunk of rules that we didn't get time to review last week, and incorporate them in play. I'm on Favour and Contacts, and presumably The Interlude as well. So, more anon!

[Thor Olavsrud]

The concept of Bonus/Difficulty seemed intuitive enough. I felt that it was more mechanically beneficial to assign Difficulty rather than a Bonus if more than one character was ganging up on the character assigned the Difficulty, since they could all then benefit.

In general though, we seemed to have a fairly even distribution of Bonus and Difficulty. We'll keep a close eye on it in our next session though.

We definitely hope to use the Favors/Wealth mechanics and Interludes in the next session. We stayed away from it in the last session because none of us felt very firm with those rules. But the others agreed to take a section each and really learn it, so Alexander should guide us through Favor, John should guide us through Wealth, and Dro will know everything there is to know about Interludes.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Oh, one other thing I should note. We had a great record of our conflicts (program, specialty, hardware, intent/special effect, etc.) because Alexander unwittingly volunteered to record that stuff for us.

While we did it for the sake of giving you data from the playtest, I think recording that information is a useful habit to encourage in players of this game. Because of the way Action Rolls, Opposition Rolls and Augmentation Rolls work, if often takes a bit of time between the declaration of an action and the time when the dice actually hit the table -- especially if more than three characters are involved in a particular contest. Keeping notes helps everyone remember what they had declared and what they were rolling.

You might consider some sort of sheet to aid the process, like a scripting sheet or the Synopsis Sheet in With Great Power.