Use These Dice!

[Kevin Smit]

Shoot, saw the thread too late to get in on it.  I was thinking of a game I would call Convergence.  Didn't have a concrete setting or theme yet, but the basic twist is that there are two (or more?) games going on simultaneously.  A gm runs a single player through a perspective, and when a die roll comes up with both numbers showing the same value, the players' perspectives "converge," for a scene, after which the players switch gms.

Wish i'da had time to get more.  New to the forums and all.

[Eero Tuovinen]

That sounds like an interesting game! I thought up four different concepts for this, all told, but not once did I figure that you could run two games side-by-side with the double dice. Nice idea!

[MKAdams]

Hey contestants!

I'll have the results up tomorrow, today was just too hectic for me to sit down and read through the last few entries in full.  I have to say though, there all so cool I may just roll a die to pick the winner.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Well, sure, but remember to use double dice! Put us on a grid or something.

[MKAdams]

Okay, so I spent all last night thinking about this, and I've decided on a winner.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who entered.  I loved all your entries, and think they all have cool things about them.  That said, I had to pick a winner, and I did it by process of elimination.  I did not do it by a fair process of elimination, but rather

David's Demonic Powers was a neat idea, but referred to a table that he forgot to include in the game.  Tsk tsk.  That's an elimination.

sirogit's Angels and Demons was eliminated because it's about Angels and Demons, a theme I'm so bored of I can barely express my indifference. Sorry sirogit, but some friends of mine who were too into the Prophecy movies in the late 90's really just wore the idea out for me.  I did really like the whole "and then your head explodes!" bit though, that was a fun surprise at the end.  I really can't express how much I think more RPGs should include this possibility.

Reading Ron Edward's Instar Dynamite makes me think that if I play it enough, I would really learn meaningful things about myself.  Tools of self-discovery aren't very metal, so that's an elimination.  Also, it seems like it would take awhile to play this, and could be a quite involved process.

Eero's Missä miehet ratsastaa - the game is about as metal as one can get, and has a high potential to finally get my black metal fan friend Chris to play a role-playing game...but I can't pronounce the name, so it's out.    it's that last word in particular.  "ratsastaa."  Yeah, that's a tongue twister.  Also, and more importantly, like Ron's game this looks like it would take awhile to play, and the rules are more than I can easily memorize and recall.

Solomasa's On The Inside came really, really close to winning, mostly because prison drama is a genre I think is strangely neglected in RPG design (especially in this post-OZ, post-Prisonbreak world), and it's quick to play, easy to remember. In the end it was too relationshippy, and didn't give the option for an exciting escape attempt, or shanking people, which is just criminal in a game about prison (hah!  see what I did there?).

So, here we are, at the very last, our winner: GreatWolf's Wuxia Melodrama. 

First of all, wuxia melodramas rule.  Second, I can play this anywhere, with anyone (if they're unfamiliar with Wuxia, just change it to a genre they understand, like westerns), and the rules are short enough I can memorize them.  Third, a game could be played in a few minutes.  You could keep a pocketful of dice with you (who doesn't do that already? right?), and bust out this game while waiting for your server to bring you your food.  That's awesome.

So, thanks again to everyone who entered.  GreatWolf, if you could send me your mailing address in a private message, I will send your prize out ASAP (got it sitting here already, waiting to go).

[sirogit]

Dude, if you look at what I wrote, and called it 'angels and demons', and not 'the head exploding game because you can't deal with reality', than well, I must ::point devil fingers down::.

[hix]

Congratulations to all. This has been a great thread to follow.

[GreatWolf]

"You love me!  You really love me!"

Ahem....

Thanks.  I'm working on developing Wuxia Melodrama, which includes making it genre-neutral, like our esteemed judge mentioned.  I have one playtest so far, and it seems to be working out fairly well.  I'll post about it in Playtesting as it goes forward.

[Ron Edwards]

This was really fun! Totally what the Endeavor forum was created for, too.

Best, Ron

[Eero Tuovinen]

B-b-b-but, where are my horns, then?

[MKAdams]

Oh my god!  I'm so sorry!

::throws Eero the horns!::

[Christoph Boeckle]

Fascinating thread! Great work everybody, and great initiative Ken!

[GregStolze]

So have you guys thought about contacting the makers of the in-OUT dice?  Saying, "Dude, you should publish this little booklet for your dice, it'll get people all fired up!?!?!!!111!"

-G.

Who thought about making a 'battle of the bands' game but didn't get off his lazy ass, and who couldn't have competed with the glory of ratsastaa (pronounced "rat's ass, ta"?) anyhow.

[MKAdams]

Who thought about making a 'battle of the bands' game but didn't get off his lazy ass, and who couldn't have competed with the glory of ratsastaa (pronounced "rat's ass, ta"?) anyhow.

So like, you roll the outer die (which represents the talent of the band), and that determines how well your band did, but if the inner die (which represents he ego of the lead singer) is greater than the outer die, then the lead singer horribly upstages the band and makes an ass out of himself?

[GregStolze]

My thought with the dice was how to wring the most data out of them with the least handling.  (I know, I sound like a broken record.)  But really, they've got a number of yields.

-The inner result
-The outer result
-Inner + outer
-Inner - outer
-Outer - Inner  (I might look at just folding both minuses together into "biggest - smallest")

So choosing your die size influences all these.  Choose a big die and your chances of both inner and outer results being bigger are increased, as is the chance of their combination being bigger.  But the chances of the minuses going negative increase too.

Really, then, what you want is a situation where different choices are privileged.

*Big inner = good/bad
*Big outer = good/bad
*Big combo = good/bad
*Inner - outer = want it big/small
*Outer - Inner = want it big/small

My vague thought was that for some kinds of songs (heartbreaking ballads) you want the smallest possible Inner, while for Mëtal!! you'd want the biggest possible combination.  For power pop you want the highest outer, while for tricky, undeplayed songs that only other musicians really appreciate you want the numbers to be as close together as possible.

I was biffing around thoughts that you'd pick a character class... yeah, that's right, a character class!  You know you secretly love it...
such as 'blues musician' who can increase their inner result by 2, speed guitarist (increase your outer result by 2), classically trained (can raise or lower your outer by 1), painfully sincere singer (raise or lower inner by 1) and so on.  Of course, it wouldn't REALLY be a character class without restrictions, so the speed guitarist can't use the lowest die size, blah blah blah.

I dunno.  It feels one-dimensional at this point, because for every song type there's an obvious optimal choice and class.  I'm also toying with the idea that the rules automate (and partially randomize) the reactions of the three judges, but that as players get eliminated, they get to replace the judges and specifically pick challenges to bone the remaining contestants. 

Meh.  Right now it's a pile of ideas.  Though if you didn't need the inner/outer dice you could simply roll two dice.  Hm.

-G.