[Downtown] A request for input and insight from more experienced game designers.

[Temple]

Im currently picking up two projects that I have been neglecting for some time now.

The first is Downtown, my first project and the one I am most hopeful for and satisfied with. It has been playtested exactly once, by Matthijs Holter and some friends of his/mine/ours from the norwegian www.rollespill.net community, and I got some very positive feedback and some criticism.
I made a thread about it on here a good while ago, but that thread was poorly worded and never got off the ground. So Im making a new one now.

This is my second attempt at a constructive thread on The Forge about Downtown. Im hoping someone can critique it, and help me develop it further. I am planning further playtesting some time in the future, this time with me at the helm.

Downtown is a roleplaying game about difficult choices and inner demons.
It is about police men and women who experience horror as a part of their daily life, and what it does to them. It is intended to be a dark game about human emotion and depravity, about weakness and loss, and about people driven into the ground by their problems. Perhaps never to get back up.

It has no GM, and players collaborate to tell their characters stories. The game has no competitive elements, and is ment to be a shared storytelling experience more than a competitive one. As such, it has very little in common withgames like Polaris or Capes. I like to think it has more in common with My Life With Master and Nicotine Girls, two of the games biggest sources of inspiration. You might disagree though, and thats cool.

These are the (very short) rules that make up Downtown:

Pain
Pain is a Trait from 1-10 that describes the emotional stress the character is going through as a result of his line of work and his stuggle with inner demons. A character with Pain 10 is suicidal, while Pain 0 signifies a character perfectly content and at peace. Pain starts at 5.

Anger
Anger is a Trait from 1-10 that measures the amount of aggression that is building up within the character from exposure to the criminal world and internal stress. It is also the Trait a character uses to affect the world violently. An Anger score of 10 represents a character completely mad with rage and hatred, while a score of 0 is a happy character at peace with the world.

Integrity
Integrity is a Trait from 1-10 that describes the hold a character has on his core personality, how far he is from loosing himself, betraying his principles or acting against his nature. Low-integrity characters have no scrouples, while high-integrity characters would never betray their principles.

Fears
A character also has three Fears, traits from 1-10 that describe fears the character is inhibited by in his work and daily life. A Fear isnt a trivial fear, like a mild phobia. Instead, it represents a more fundamental fear that is actually a hindrance in some way to the character. Sample Fears include:
Fear of Rejection, Fear of Loosing Control, Fear of Intimacy and Fear of Violence. Players are encouraged to come up with their own Fears, as Fears are central to a character. Fears start at 5.

Relationships
Lastly, all characters have one Relationship. This Trait has no rating, but represents a person or persons central to the characters life: A wife, a sibling, a family, a soccer team or a dear friend are all valid Relationships.

Vices
A character also has a Vice, a weakness he must sucumb to from time to time. Players should describe their characters Vice in some detail. A character with a Vice of Alcohol should have a bar he frequents often, for example. Like Relationships, Vices have no rating.

Conflict
The only conflicts actively rolled in Downtown are those conflicts that relate directly to the Fear that was chosen as the Theme of the Episode. When a character is faced with an obstacle that requires him to overcome his Fears, he may choose to roll at any time he feels the conflict is at its most intense. The roll is 1d10. If the result is equal to or greater than the relevant Fears rating, he has overcome his Fear and the task is accomplished. The player then narrates the result. Overcoming a Fear reduces the Fears rating by 1, as well as lowering Pain by 1.
Should the roll fail, the character fails to overcome his Fear, and is instead ruled by it. The player narrates the result. Failing a Fear roll increases the Fears rating by 1, as well as increasing either Pain or Anger (the player chooses one) by 1.
If a player has an Integrity higher than the Fear being rolled, he may add +1 to the roll.

A Fear that is reduced to 0 is overcome completely, and is erased from the character sheet. A Fear that reaches 10 can never be overcome, except by taking 1 Pain as if the character failed an attempt.

Anger, Pain and Integrity
Anger increases by 1 every time the character comes face to face with the harsh realities of his work. Seeing an underage prostitute, witnessing a violent crime, meeting a drigdealer who sells crack to children, seeing a rape victim; all these things are valid reasons to gain Anger.
Whenever a character is in a position where he has the opportunity to take his Anger out on a person who in his eyes deserves it, he must make a roll against his Anger as described under Conflict. If he succeeds, he manages to keep his cool, while a failiure indicates that he gives in to Anger. Acting in Anger alleviates Pain by 1, but causes a loss of 1 Integrity. Anger also rises by 1.

Scenes
There are two  types of scenes, or Episodes, in Downtown: Conflict Episodes and Comfort Episodes.

Conflict Episodes are scenes where a character must grapple with his Fears, or comes into contact with something that rouses his Angeror causes him Pain.

Comfort Episodes are scenes where the character alleviates his Pain and Anger by seeking comfort in his Relationship or endulging his Vice.
Any time a player feels his Pain or Anger is reaching uncomfortable levels, he can call for a Comfort scene. The player chooses wether the character wants to spend time with his Relationship or seek out his Vice. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Seeking comfort in Relationships decreases both Pain and Anger by 1, and increases Integrity by 1. Spending time with Relationships can be dangerous for characters with high Anger however. When a character with an anger above 5 seeks comfort in his Relationship, he must make an Anger roll. Failing this roll means that the character looses control of his Anger in front of his Relationship. If this happens, Anger is still reduced by 1, but Pain increases by 1 instead of dropping, and he looses 1 Integrity.

Conversely, a character who seeks comfort in his Vice reduces his Pain by 2, but increases his Anger by 1.

Between these Episodes are breaks, in which players go out of character and can discuss the game on the meta level. This is also when the Theme of the next Episode is chosen, when the players decide who the next Episode wil be about and who will be the Storyteller and the Antagonist for the next episode.

Each Episode has a Theme, a sentral Trait of the main character which it revolves around. This can be any Trait, but if a Relationship or a Weakness is the Theme the players must select a suplementary Theme from one of the other Traits the character has.

It is the Storyteller (usually the player to the right of the main characters player) who frames the scenes and directs them towards a conclusion that follows the Episodes Theme. The Antagonist (the player to the left of the main characters player) plays antagonistic elements such as NPCs, weather conditions, dramatic events and dangerous objects.

If there are more than three playersit is more than possible for another player to volunteer for his character to be a part of the scene. Both the main character and any supporting characters in the Episode need to formulate a Goal, something that the players want their characters to experience or achieve during the Episode. Wether they succeed or not is decided by the Fear roll.

The Endgame
The game ends when one of the characters Pain or Anger reaches 10, or a characters Integrity reaches 0. At that point, the players each describe an Endgame, an epilogue to their characters, and how their lives were affected by the loss of their friend or co-worker.
First up is the player who reached a Trait of or 10, and his Endgame willcolor all the other players.
Did his suicide (Pain 10) change their lives? Did his insanity (Anger 10) force them to face their own shortcomings? Did his turning to crime (Integrity 0) make them think differently about their jobs?

[Malcolm Craig]

Hi,

There was one part of your post that particularly caught my eye, so I'd like to focus on that, if I may:

Anger increases by 1 every time the character comes face to face with the harsh realities of his work. Seeing an underage prostitute, witnessing a violent crime, meeting a drigdealer who sells crack to children, seeing a rape victim; all these things are valid reasons to gain Anger.

Is there a mechanical effect that cause this increase in Anger to happen or is it purely through player choice? If the game is, as you say, all about the harshness and grimness of being a cop experiencing horror on a daily basis, you're going to come up against this situation an awful lot of the time. So, is there a means by which this is moderated or enacted or is it simply player choice to face up to these things? I can see either players avoiding coming into contact with such things or getting into a death spiral where Anger inexorably rockets upwards.

Perhaps a way to approach this might be to remove this element and have an 'Anger' as something analogous to a 'Fear'. So, for example, you have a conflict when you come up against something which causes you fear and you can also have a conflict when you come against something which causes you anger. This give a chance to overcome to anger and gain something positive out of it.

Hope that's helpful in some way.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Temple]

Hi,

There was one part of your post that particularly caught my eye, so I'd like to focus on that, if I may:

Anger increases by 1 every time the character comes face to face with the harsh realities of his work. Seeing an underage prostitute, witnessing a violent crime, meeting a drigdealer who sells crack to children, seeing a rape victim; all these things are valid reasons to gain Anger.

Is there a mechanical effect that cause this increase in Anger to happen or is it purely through player choice? If the game is, as you say, all about the harshness and grimness of being a cop experiencing horror on a daily basis, you're going to come up against this situation an awful lot of the time. So, is there a means by which this is moderated or enacted or is it simply player choice to face up to these things? I can see either players avoiding coming into contact with such things or getting into a death spiral where Anger inexorably rockets upwards.

Perhaps a way to approach this might be to remove this element and have an 'Anger' as something analogous to a 'Fear'. So, for example, you have a conflict when you come up against something which causes you fear and you can also have a conflict when you come against something which causes you anger. This give a chance to overcome to anger and gain something positive out of it.

Hope that's helpful in some way.

Cheers
Malcolm

Thats actually a very good thought. The initial idea was that its up to the player when he or she gains Anger, and that the game only provides rough guidelines for when Anger is increased. Basically, whenever you feel angry, you take an Anger point.

Having Anger work like Fears is an idea I hadnt thought of, and I can see how it might work.

[Malcolm Craig]

Thats actually a very good thought. The initial idea was that its up to the player when he or she gains Anger, and that the game only provides rough guidelines for when Anger is increased. Basically, whenever you feel angry, you take an Anger point.

Having Anger work like Fears is an idea I hadnt thought of, and I can see how it might work.

Cool. If it fits with your vision of how the game should be, then do let us know how it works in a future playtest.

As a further question:

It is the Storyteller (usually the player to the right of the main characters player) who frames the scenes and directs them towards a conclusion that follows the Episodes Theme. The Antagonist (the player to the left of the main characters player) plays antagonistic elements such as NPCs, weather conditions, dramatic events and dangerous objects.

I take it that the Storyteller rotates round as play progressees through the various characters. Why in particular does the Storyteller get to frame the scenes for the 'spotlight' character? And, as a follow up, what was the experience of this in play? My gut reaction is to think "Hmmm, could there not be more powerful scenes if the 'spotlight' player had scene or conflict framing authority for their character?" I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Temple]

As a further question:

It is the Storyteller (usually the player to the right of the main characters player) who frames the scenes and directs them towards a conclusion that follows the Episodes Theme. The Antagonist (the player to the left of the main characters player) plays antagonistic elements such as NPCs, weather conditions, dramatic events and dangerous objects.

I take it that the Storyteller rotates round as play progressees through the various characters. Why in particular does the Storyteller get to frame the scenes for the 'spotlight' character? And, as a follow up, what was the experience of this in play? My gut reaction is to think "Hmmm, could there not be more powerful scenes if the 'spotlight' player had scene or conflict framing authority for their character?" I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Cheers
Malcolm

Thats..Actually a bloody damn good idea! I hadnt even considered that,for some unknowable reason,but now that you made me think about it, yes! That would be better!

Thanks, Malcolm!