[sic]The Ultimate Elvis Challenge!

[ja-prozac]

Set C of course.

The Ultimate Elvis Challenge![/b]

There can be only one true Elvis impersonator!

In postapocyliptic wasteland left after alien invasion humanity has lost its spirit. Only people who believe in
something still struggle to survive and fight. There's a legend among Elvis impersonators that if one person
can become the true King would lead rest of humankind to whatever this person  wants.

Would it be freedom?
Would it be revenge?
Would it be restoration of civilisation?

It's for you to decide. But remember:

There can be only one true Elvis impersonator!

Goal of the game is to become one true Elvis in series of duels played between player characters.
There will be two kinds of scenes - building scenes in which players build Elvis pool or rise levels
of their key phrases(based on elvis songs' titles) and duel scenes in which players duel who gets
the Elvis pool.

kamil wegrzynowicz

[Filip Luszczyk]

It's... wacky

The space opera part is not represented too strongly in your initial concept, but I'm waiting to see what you'll manage to squeeze out of the whole thing. Sounds pretty Six String Samurai enough, so sounds pretty fun

[ja-prozac]

SSS is strong reference, though there will be space aliens roamnig in the wilderness
and nothing stops Elvises from getting unto other planets and space stations. It will be
mentioned in setting part of the game. But, yes, space opera angle is the weakest one.

As of rules - I'm working on duels' part. Probably they won't be duels to the death.
More about Elvis pool and standing. Now I have to make some way to resolve them mechanically.

Building scenes will probably look like this:
Player, whose Elvis is in the spotlight, says what his/her character is doing:
So, Elvis is seducing hot alien chick...
Any player then can invent some trouble:
...when she pulls out deadly raygun and points at him...
Third player is then narrating the scene, while fourth(if there is fourth) is roleplaying npcs.

[ja-prozac]

So here it is, more or less oficial rules:

What is needed:
4 players
lots of d6
some karaoke equipment could be useful(wit elvis songs, of course)
sheets of paper
pencils

Goal of the game:
Players compete in duels to prove one of them is true Elvis destined to lead humanity
toward any destiny he wants. Player who wins 10 points of Elvis, wins the game.

Character creation:
Every player rolls three phrases - these phrases are titles of Elvis' songs. Every phrase starts with one.
Ie.: Ralph rolled In the ghetto, Hound dog and Jailhouse rock, for sure it will be badass Elvis, yay.
Also every character has trait called Style, which shows how much you're like Elvis. 'Cause you know, really
only the King had a style, right? This trait starts with two. Style can't be higher than 5.
Last thing is two points of Guts. Guts can be used to buy dice.

Gameplay:
Consists of two parts - building scenes and duel scenes. In building scenes player shows his/her Elvis on the road
having adventures and in case of successful scene, levels up his character. In duel one character challenges another
to prove that he is better Elvis than opponent. Duels are made with posing, singing or talking - no harmful or deadly stuff.
Elvis impersonators are civilised people, mostly.

No gm:
Rounds go clockwise and in his/her turn player can start buiding scene or challenge someone to a duel.

Building Scene and shared narration:
Player, whose turn it is right now, starts with his Elvis doing something, ie. -
Elvis is hitting on cute alien chick
Elvis is driving his pink Cadillac

Now, any other player can interrupt with something that stirs trouble in the scene, ie. -
when alien chick gets deadly blaster in her hand and points it towards Elvis
when hillbilly postnuclear troglodytes starts chasing Elvis in their truck

Third player narrates the scene, while fourth player plays npcs.

During roleplaying the scene surely some conflict will be brought up. In this case, player
playing Elvis in this scene should roll 1d6 and read the result from the table. He can also
use Guts to buy more dice - one point of Guts per die before the roll or two points of guts
per die after the roll. The highest result counts from all dice counts as the proper one.

6 - great success and 2 points to us for levelling up.
4 - 5 - success and 1 point for levelling up
2 - 3 - failure and no points
1 - great failure and substract 1 point from the phrase or Style

Final result is narrated by player, who came up with complication.

If player wins the scene, he/she can spend earned points to raise:
- phrase(1 point of phrase per point of success)
- Style(1 point of Style per point of success)
- Guts(2 points of Guts per point od success)
- roll one more phrase for one point of success

Player can't put more than point of success in any of these things, Guts being the exception ie.:
If player wins by 6(2 points), he can't raise Style from 2 to 4, but he can Raise Guts from 1 to 5.

Duels:

In his turn one can challenge the another. This can be done in many ways,
but it should be obvious tha duel is about to start. If you decline the duel,
you lose 2 points of your choice and challenging player wins on point of Elvis.


Phrases and Act like the King!

Challenged player chooses one of his phrase and Acts like the King! He must:

- strike a pose, do the hips moves or anything that has anything to do with the phrase
- deliver punchline according to phrase - You're just another child born in the ghetto,
I pity you!.
- sing a song from the phrase(this is where the karaoke comes in and generally chaos ensues.

Challenging player must answer with his own phrase, but his phrase can't be lower than one used
earlier. ie:
If challenged player used Hound dog 2 then answering player must use phrase with 2 or more
points.
He can also use Guts points to power up his phrase (one point per one level) but still lower
phrase will add its original number of dice to base pool. ie.:
If one player used Teddy Bear 3 at the beginning of a duel and responding player doesn't have
any phrase on level 3, he must give up or use one of the lower phrase with Guts as power up. Lets say
he uses Heartbreak Hotel 2 with one point of guts. He's still in a duel but gains only two dice to
his pool.
   
Of course, he also must Act like the King!

Phrases' levels counts as base pool of dice to roll in a duel.

These shows are judged by other players, who each can award an audience dice to one of the duelists:
one die - twice per game
two dice - once per game

Escalation

If one of the duelists wants, he can escalate by choosing another phrase,  Act like the King! remembering
that he must choose higher or equal phrase than phrase played before. This phrase's level also counts
to base number of dice, ie.:
Ralph have chosen Hound dog 2. His opponent played Devil in disguise 2. Now Ralph choose
to use {Jailhouse Rock 3. He can't use In the Ghetto 1 beacuse it's too low without Guts power up.

Style Rolls

When everybody used all the phrases they wanted and add awarded Audience dice, they can also
add dice with Guts points. One die for one point of guts before the roll or one die for two points of guts
after the roll.

Players roll their pools of dice. Every result lower or equal player's Style is counted as success
Person with more successes wins and wins two points of Elvis.
     

[ja-prozac]

Slight rule addendum:
If player gives later in a duel because of the lack of high phrases and not enough
Guts to to pewr phrases up, the winning player gets 2 points of Elvis.

[Christian Liberg]

Its not the most serious game ive ever seen, but it sure sounds as one of the most --well wacky

Like the idea of the revolving players, good way to keep the story going even, if somebody passes out from laughter.
Could you throw in some more examples on how such a scene might be?

I have a feeling that their will be constant leveling up? that the progression rate is very fast indeed, as the game open ups for three dices at every conflict, and to use the highest rolled number? one of the three dices ought to be a 4-5-6.

if more than one conflict arises in a scene, hence calling for more than one roll, can the guts be used again, or are they used for that scene?

Chris

[ja-prozac]

t sure sounds as one of the most --well wacky

Besides its wackiness there's also competitive element who to challenge
and when.

I have to work out how many levels loser would have to drop after the duel
and for how long he should have duel immunity. Basically both winner and loser
will have to drop some number of levels after a duel.

Building scenes - raising levels
Duels - losing levels

Scene should be short, no more than one conflict. That's why I have to work on
tightening the shared narration rights for players. More examples later, sorry,
no time now.

[Filip Luszczyk]

Looks like fun

How many starting levels does a newly rolled phrase have in case of level-ups?

What to do in case of ties?

I think that limiting audience awards to three times per game is not the best idea here - after all, it's all about performance here, isn't it? What if the audience voted after the performance, and each vote simply counted as one bonus die? Also, maybe being awarded for karaoke always gives double the bonus? Karaoke will take more time and effort than the other two options.

I'm not sure if spending Guts to add dice in the duel makes sense - since Guts is already used to power-up phrases, one of these options may be effectively useless.

Maybe the loser loses points equal to his own successes rolled? That way it would be kind of self balancing - aim high, fall low. Dunno about the winner, though.

I think some mechanic that would protect the loser from being repeatedly challenged for an easy win could be good here. Like, the loser can't be challenged immediately after his loss, or something like that.

[Reprobus]

It seems like fun, even for someone (like me ) who is not the biggest Elvis fan... but what about the space-opera part?

[Vulpinoid]

I know a few people who really know their Elvis...they'd be at a huge advantage in this game.

It's be fun to watch them "Elvis Duel" though...

I'd give this game a go.

V

[ja-prozac]

While playing needs some basic knowledge about Elvis it is entirely possible
for group to create their own vision of Elvis. Besides it's more written for the
hilarity of the overall situation than use of obscure trivia.