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Game Chef practice: Frankenstein, Gettysburg, Fish and King

Started by indigonegative, October 31, 2007, 04:30:59 PM

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indigonegative

I found some random words the other day to challenge myself to design a game. I've been reading the popular indie games recently: DRYH, SotC, Dogs, Mountain Witch, etc. I'd really like something as efficient as DRYH or Dogs.
Ok, I decided to implement the Frankenstein part as modular body parts for your PC, a robot or cyborg. I want to implement Humanity as a hidden power of the PCs, used to supplement or change rolls like Fudge points. I'd happily use the SotC/Fate style of designing aspects which gain points when the GM uses them, so I can later spend them to fudge a bad roll or change a scene.
I'd like for arms, legs, torsos and other parts to be interchangeable between mechs. That way you kill things to cannibalize their parts, like Battletech in that way.
I'm hung up right now on some basic design elements, though. For the parts to have lives of their own, it seems like they should have independent wound points. I figure each arm and each leg has 1 (flimsy) to 5 (armored) wound points. Does this seem like too much to keep track of?
I add that skills will be affected by which implements you have attached, and unattached equipment will be very limited equipment. Incidentally, I'm using wound points because I want short, brutal games. As in Battletech or your average FPS, headshots are highly lethal.

indigonegative

Power 19 answers so far for my game, tentatively titled First Night (after awakening on a hostile planet with competing bots, living through the night is a major accomplishment) :
1.) What is your game about?
Robots seed a dead world and begin terraforming it. Rival corporations' 'bots compete for ownership of the world, so they can capitalize on the arrival of colonists in the future. In the game, you are hte robots fighting to survive.
2.) What do the characters do?
The characters will fight and kill other bots, deal with environmental hazards and augment themselves in order to survive.
3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
The players will conduct combats and skill checks, considering how best to keep their robots alive.It will be difficult because of the dire scenario. Life expectancy is short, but there should be an endless recombination of aspects of the other robots.
The GM will have the option of pulling the players along with the quirks they inherit from their creators, or lately attached parts. Some of these will be revealed to the players right away.
4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
The setting is a future where Earth will soon be uninhabitable. Mankind's survival depend upon the development of galaxy-class terraformers.
5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
The players will create a modular 'bot with parts which help with various skills. One arm might be a weapon, while the other is a Swiss Army knife of tools. There will be creation limits, enforcing strengths and weaknesses. Beyond a certain point, improvements will only be available after creation, by stealing them from another bot's smoking hulk.
6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
Utilitarianism is the name of the game. Don't get attached to anyone else, or even parts of yourself. If you're the superior model, you must succeed.