[Illumination] Once again, from scratch

[Filip Luszczyk]

The last playtest of Illumination, although it resulted in a major system collapse, gave me quite a lot of food for thought. However, it's only now that all the loose ideas I had clicked together and formed a clear picture of gameplay in my head. There are still blank spots, but I hope to fill them soon, once I'm done with Game Chef stuff, to have more concrete rules to playtest on Constar at the end of April.

Information on Illumination, my Mage heartbreaker game, can be found here. However, I'm basically starting from scratch now. Old system goes out the window. The board goes out the window. Metaphysical gibberish goes out the window. I'm basing the game on two assumptions:

1.Belief is power, as it shapes the Reality.
2.There is a paradigm war over the shape of the Reality.

Everything is a Belief

Now, (nearly) everything in the game is a Belief. Beliefs are written on index cards. There is basically no character sheet, everyone has a collection of index cards with Beliefs on them, starting from the core Belief that defines the very identity of the character. All praise index cards!

I suppose Beliefs will have some numerical values measuring their power. It's possible these values will be directly compared in case of a paradigm clash, to decide which one defines the basic law of the Reality and which one intrudes.

Every single thing about the character is defined as a Belief. The character is the person he is because he believes so. The character can do things he's good at because he's confident he's good at them. The character holds certain views because he's convinced these are right, and it's the same with his relationships. It's possible there will be certain classes of Beliefs, but I'm not sure if these will differ in how they work mechanically (maybe in how and when they are activated). I'm pretty sure there will be one special group of Beliefs – Trials, defining the character's motivations and goals, things he believes he needs to achieve.

So, a sample character could look like this, with every single Belief written on a separate index card:

My name is Robert Smith, and I'm an ex-policeman and a vigilante. (3)
I've been abducted by aliens once, and they experimented on me. (5)
Alien experiments unlocked hidden powers of human brain in me, and now I can activate these by taking the right combinations of drugs. (4)
Focused meditation sometimes helps me unlock my powers, too. (2)
Aliens secretly control the world, and their agents are everywhere. (3)
If one knows how to look, one can find gates to their home world. (2)
The purpose of my life is fighting alien agents and halting their intrusion. (5)
I'm good at shooting. (4)
I can drive well. (2)
Rex, my dog, is my best friend. (3)

Substances and Peril

Apart from that, the player character will have some Substances. These are the aspects of the Reality which he can shape. These are chosen by the player, and can be as broad as he prefers – but it pays to start small (it's possible to merge three related Substances into a broader one, and it results in a moment of enlightenment and general character growth). So, the example character could have:

The Substance of Own Metabolism.
The Substance of Bullet Trajectories.
The Substance of Own Dog's Instincts.

Or, he could just as well start with:

The Substance of Living Beings.
The Substance of the Laws of Physics.
The Substance of Conspiracy Theories.

These have no values, and constrain players shaping options instead. The character is able to shape phenomena that fall into one of his Substances however he wishes. So, the character with a Substance of Own Metabolism would be able to, for example, regulate bodily functions and accelerate healing, while the character with the Substance of Conspiracy Theories would be able to make Conspiracy Theories true or false.

However, using Substances to shape the Reality generates Peril (Paradox), as the collective beliefs of the masses opposes the change. The greater the violation of consensus, the more Peril is produced. Peril goes to the GM, as tokens that are later used to make things tougher, most probably by generating various strange phenomena. I'm not yet sure about the specific effects of Peril, most probably it will allow the GM to bash players with Reality Beliefs somehow.

Reality and Otherside Beliefs

Beliefs that are integral part of the consensus would be determined by the group during the initial prep, and written on index cards as well. Things like Science is the boon of mankind or Holy miracles are possible. This would basically define the setting, as it would be possible to choose Reality Beliefs that make for a completely fantastic or crazy world. Including some bizarre elements will be encouraged by the game, I think.

In play, Reality Beliefs will be usable to anyone at the table. It will be possible to change them, and to add new, in order to bring the Reality closer to the character's Vision. And this would be the core of the paradigm war.

The group also defines some core features of the Otherside (Umbra) in a similar manner, by choosing Otherside Beliefs and writing them on index cards. I'm not yet sure if these will determine the most important features of the Otherside in general, or maybe rather there will be a number of regions with separate sets of laws.

The GM and factions

The GM provides adversity to the characters by controlling factions. Generally, factions will be organizations the minions of which the group faces, kind of like Technocracy as a whole goes against more individualistic Tradition's members in Mage. Every faction will have it's own set of Beliefs, and important NPCs will be simply defined as Beliefs (e.g. Reverend Michael is the representative of God on Earth and through his TV show he will lead mankind towards salvation or We, the demons from the realm of Ner'gal have all sworn fealty to Lord Behemoth). However, it will be possible to create a faction that is in fact one powerful entity just as well.

Factions won't have any Substances, and their members will have access to any mojo that is appropriate to their Beliefs, as it doesn't really make sense to constrain the GM the way players are. At the same time, there will be no mechanical costs or benefits to using these powers, and they will add only color.

Beliefs as currency and its flows

Now, this is how I see the table during play.[/ul]

The cross on the left side belongs to the GM – he can have a separate cross for every faction, for clarity, or simply use one for all of them. The cross on the bottom belongs to the players. Those small crosses on top and on the right belong to the remaining players. Reality and Otherside areas in the middle are public.

Vision Pool is where the player keeps his character's Beliefs normally. The GM keeps factions' Beliefs in his Vision Pool(s).

If the Belief is somehow proven, its index card is moved to the Conviction Pool. Basically, the player can simply narrate something that confirms the Belief and transfer its index card. This is similar to using Traits in DitV. Once the Belief is in the Conviction Pool, it can be used as a resource in conflicts (once in the Conviction Pool, the Belief is simply a resource, and it can be used in any conflict, kind of like dice in DitV can be used in any way once they hit the table).

Conflicts will be resolved either through secret bidding or open auction, I haven't decided yet. There will be no tokens like in previous version of Illumination – instead, players will bid index cards with Beliefs from their Conviction Pools, using their values.

Disproving the Belief moves its index card to the Doubt Pool. I think that everyone will be able to do it with anyone's Beliefs, simply by narrating something that violates the Belief. Once the Belief is in the Doubt pool, it becomes a fanmail resource.

Whenever the player uses shaping in a cool way, others can reward him by giving him index cards from their Doubt Pools. These are attached to the Substance used, and later the player can use these cards in conflicts related to shaping the Reality, if he uses the Substance again. This is the only mechanical benefit to using shaping – using shaping creatively charges the Substances, and later they can be discharged.

When the Belief is moved to the Conviction Pool, it is marked once. When it is moved to the Doubt pool, it is marked twice. When enough marks accumulate on the Belief, the marks can be removed to improve the Belief's value by changing it (requires, say, more marks than its current value) or strengthening it (requires, say, more marks than twice its current value). New Belief can be added by splitting the value of old, if there is a high enough number of marks on it. Also, it's possible to remove marks from Beliefs to add new Substances or to merge three related Substances into a broader one (this changes these Beliefs or adds new ones, as character's world view is changed by a sudden revelation – basically, merging Substances has an entry cost but pays out).

Anyone can use Reality and Otherside Beliefs, and these accumulate marks as well. However, I'm not sure how it will be decided who spends these marks. Most probably, once enough marks are accumulated, a conflict will be needed to change the consensus or affect outside dimensions. Anyway, the paradigm war can completely change the world – e.g. if there's a 2 + 2 = 4 Reality Belief, changing it into 2 + 2 = 5 will make it be so, and from now on, the Reality will behave according to its new laws.

Beliefs spent in conflicts are placed in the pool at the top of the cross, and then at the end of the scene go back to Vision Pools of their respective owners (or to Reality/Otherside pool).

And this basically sums up my new concept of the game.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[Filip Luszczyk]

And this is one of the times when I say: "Ouch!"

[Spooky Fanboy]

Glad to see you're still cranking away on this, but I'd kinda like to see an example of play to get the hang of how this is supposed to work.

[Filip Luszczyk]

Heh, I'd like to see it in actual play as well.

Basically, confirming or disproving Beliefs would generate resources for use in conflicts, and slowly "leveled up" Beliefs (represented by moving index cards with Beliefs around various areas on the table). Confirming Beliefs would produce immediately accessible resources. Disproving them would produce a fanmail resource that could be used to reward cool instances of shaping, and it would lead to faster change of paradigm. This means that it would pay out to have one's Beliefs disproved, as this makes it possible to reward cool ideas (or, it would pay to arrange for situations that disprove others' Beliefs, as it makes it possible to be rewarded by them). Then, there would be an additional incentive to shape the Reality, as Substances would be charged with some extra effectiveness, and using them would give back the resources to their owners. At the same time, shaping would produce Peril, a resource for the GM to create trouble with.

Also, playing according to the rules of the Reality or disproving them would allow everyone to produce resources of the respective types. So, one would want to make the Reality work his way, to make the public pool more of an extension of his preferred methods.

Anyway, it seems the idea for development I gave above is flawed - it would be very difficult to strengthen the Belief by having it confirmed. I suppose it's better if the Belief is open to doing something with it once a certain number of marks is accumulated (say, more than its current value), at which point it could be strengthened for an increase of 2 points or changed for an increase of 3 points. However, this would give me high values to deal with in conflicts. Maybe, multiple values over 10 added together in the same conflict. This could be bothersome.

Also, 3 marks for moving the Belief into Doubt Pool seem more appropriate to me now, as these Beliefs would be more difficult to get back probably.