[Power of 19] Trip : RPG about Addiction

[fanflicks]

Okay it's been awhile since my last visit but when i posted my initial idea i got a lot of good responses. So here we go.

1) What is your game about?
Trip is about people who struggle to break their addiction(s) but at the same time they can tap into reality bending abilities while under the influence.

2) What do the characters do?
The characters are trying to go sober while avoiding overdosing on their powers / addiction. Antagonists wish to imprison them and use their abilities for self-gratification.

3) What do the players do?
Players create a character that is obviously flawed but plays out such flaws to eventually "kick" their addiction.

4) How does your setting reinforce what the game is about?
The setting takes place in modern day with a slight conspiracy twist lurking in the shadows.

5) How does character creation reinforce what the game is about?
Character creation involves an addiction which makes them labeled as a "low life" but one with near cosmic reality crashing abilities. When a character tries to "smash a wall" with their mind or "levitate up in the air" it does not appear this way in reality exactly but the effect can happen depending on the dice roll.. Kind of like Tyler Durden in Fight Club (Ed Norton can see Brad Pitt but to everyone else it is the same person).

6) What types of behavior does you game reward or punish?
When a player uses their "junk dice pool" it helps win conflicts but plays out with them succumbing to their addiction even more. Too much use of these extra dice for conflict resolution could make the character overdose. Overcoming conflicts with their "sober dice pool" keeps them from ODing but the effect is not as potent.

7) How is behavior rewarded or punished?
Using the "sober dice pool" and succeeding with the dice rolls result in more of these dice. Using too many of the "junk dice pool" results in potential spectacular reality-bending effects but will move closer to the ODing side of the life meter.

How are responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
There is a storyteller who narrates and manages the NPCs. But if a player succeeds with his/her junk dice they can also narrate the outcome of a scene as if the high factor of the addiction is projected around everyone for the duration of the scene.

9) What does your game do to command player's attention?
The addiction almost acts like a sidebar, convincing the player that "they're coming to get you" when they are really safe. Or are they?

10) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Borrowing dice to pull off spectacular effects (junk dice) or mundane sober actions (sober dice) . Gain and lose dice depending on outcomes but most of all, avoiding botches.Moving up and down the life meter is a constant reminder as to how "fragile" existence really is.

11) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
Managing the good and bad (but powerful) dice while winning conflicts allows the players to be careful of tapping into their reality bending powers.

12) How do characters in your game advance?
By gaining experience for staying off of junk in a game session allows less dependency on the junk dice and use permanent sober dice. Eventually the character can ascend the need of junk when using their powers.

13) How does the character advancement reinforce what your game is about?
The point of playing my game is to explore addiction in a mature fashion whether it is a substance like drugs, or thrill seeking or even an addiction to a person. To be able to settle for reality and move away from their reality bending abilities which are just temporary fixes to the matters at hand.

14) What kind of effect do you want the game to produce in players?
I want the players to explore the flaw factor of addiction and how the game allows you to tap into it for fantastic powers but at a price.

15) What areas of your game recieve extra attention and color?
The flaws / addiction and how it drives the story. Most of the game should involve the character's personal space and how this affects them and the other characters in the game.

16) Which part of your game are you most excited or interested about?
Coming up with different addictions that players can play off of and be able to use in the game's many conflicts. Addiction does not have to just be a substance. In a recent conversation with a non roleplayer,she mentioned if she could play a character who was addicted (obsessed) with someone and how that would change their reality / perception.

17) Where does your game take players that other games can't/won't?
I want to push the flawed character concept to the point that flaws make for great gaming. They provide material for storytellers to get started with material.

18) What are your publishing goals for this game?
I want to publish this as a POD and PDF. Make it affordable to bring in new players to gaming.

19) Who is your target audience?
People who are seasoned role players and even those that want to try gaming for the first time. I want this to cross genres and gaming experiences.


As for influences media-wise here is a list from my blog. http://www.realitycrash.com/

Movies-
12 Monkeys
Donnie Darko
Time Bandits

Music-
Radiohead
Seaweed
The Orb
The Verve
Throwing Muses

Others-
William Burroughs books (Cities of the Red Night Trilogy)

What areas do i need to flesh out from the Power of 19? Should i work on a "world" for the game to take place in? Perhaps this "world" comes into play when the characters start to reality bend and walk into this world which is different from our own mundane one? Thanks for your time.

[whoknowswhynot]

Love this Idea!  Flawed characters rock!

[JoyWriter]

Serious cool. What do you think of having Junk dice and sober dice work in exclusive quantities, with more of one meaning less of the other, but not exactly 1->1? This might mean that both could scale up the difficulty scale to supernatural, but sober dice take longer to get there. I have another idea, what if the Junk dice cannot be used to do normal everyday things like make some food. It would be so bizarre if someone comes back after fighting off cacodemons with his tentacle arms to find he can't hold a butter knife. Quite tragic really, but in an excellent way. That kind of thing would constantly give the characters, and the players, some reason to get them of the drugs. How about adding A Scanner Darkly to the mix?

[Creatures of Destiny]

It would definately be interesting to have the addictions affect the powers - with substances there 'd be uppers and downers and the junk dice would do different things. Of course many psychedelic drugs (which I imagine as part of this "smashing walls" scenario, aren't addictive, but the addiction could be to the reality warping itself.

Other addictions oculd have effects tied to the source. A relationship addicted character can maybe affect reality around the object of their obsession? A shopoholic might be able to draw endless credit and so forth. How do you imagine this?

Also there might be two parrelel worlds - one powered by the junk and one by the sober dice. The stories intertwine but which dice the players are using affects which "world" they inhabit.

Throw in Jacobs Ladder, Brazil, (both great on the conspiracy angle), The Beyond Within (BBC documentary on acid), Blue Velvet (S&M addiction), Mulholland Drive and maybe some Velvet Underground for extra inspiration.

[David Berg]

I was reading this and some half-remembered stuff from the first thread nagged at me, so here's a link:
[ Idea ] RPG dealing with Addiction

Your Power 19 gives me the impression of interesting ethical choice, except this here:

3) What do the players do?
Players create a character that is obviously flawed but plays out such flaws to eventually "kick" their addiction.

Is "kicking it" a goal?  Or a guarantee?  Or neither?

If the goal is to kick it, then it seems this game would be based on resource management, with decisions made for the sake of getting dice.

If you know the game ends with you kicking it, and the point is to portray the experience of doing so, then it seems to me that the current dice pools would be somewhat tangential to the "real issue" of "what happens in your life while you're kicking it?"

If the goal is to play through situations that make you question "How bad do you want to kick it?  What are you willing to do?", with the possibility that maybe someone will decide not to kick it (as opposed to, y'know, failing due to poor strategy or luck), I'd think that might produce the sort of deep probing you sound interested in.

Please pardon the oversimplification of these three options, my aim was just to contrast them.

[fanflicks]

Serious cool. What do you think of having Junk dice and sober dice work in exclusive quantities, with more of one meaning less of the other, but not exactly 1->1? This might mean that both could scale up the difficulty scale to supernatural, but sober dice take longer to get there. I have another idea, what if the Junk dice cannot be used to do normal everyday things like make some food. It would be so bizarre if someone comes back after fighting off cacodemons with his tentacle arms to find he can't hold a butter knife. Quite tragic really, but in an excellent way. That kind of thing would constantly give the characters, and the players, some reason to get them of the drugs. How about adding A Scanner Darkly to the mix?

Thanks for the questions / suggestions. I will probably go with the idea that the Sober and Junk dice pools are seperate and spending them on rolls for actions bring about different results. For example i can tap into my reality bending ways using the junk dice which would equate to indulging in my addiction AND performing an action that is not reality bound (fly to the top of a building, become intangible, etc...) . But with the Sober dice i can excel in a mundane but potent action (stunt drive a car, believable marksmenship, etc...) Botching rolls with the Junk dice can bring the character one step closer to overdosing on the life meter.

[fanflicks]

Other addictions could have effects tied to the source. A relationship addicted character can maybe affect reality around the object of their obsession? A shopoholic might be able to draw endless credit and so forth. How do you imagine this?

Also there might be two parrelel worlds - one powered by the junk and one by the sober dice. The stories intertwine but which dice the players are using affects which "world" they inhabit.

Throw in Jacobs Ladder, Brazil, (both great on the conspiracy angle), The Beyond Within (BBC documentary on acid), Blue Velvet (S&M addiction), Mulholland Drive and maybe some Velvet Underground for extra inspiration.

Those movie influences were the very same ones I was thinking of when i first started with this idea. I would also include 12 Monkeys to the list. Originally i was thinking of multiple time lines and the addiction as a way of keeping the character from staying in just one. But the duality aspect of mundane vs warped is something i will probably focus on. For example, a player may be pursued by antagonists in the warped version of reality but in the mundane, he is running away from something that no one can see. People around him think he's crazy / "on something" and dismiss it. The mundane time line covers for the warped / tripping one that he is witnessing.

As for music i am a big fan of Radiohead and Throwing Muses, two different bands that for me, show me this warped non-mundane version of  reality which i can draw inspiriation from.

[fanflicks]

3) What do the players do?
Players create a character that is obviously flawed but plays out such flaws to eventually "kick" their addiction.

Is "kicking it" a goal?  Or a guarantee?  Or neither?

If the goal is to kick it, then it seems this game would be based on resource management, with decisions made for the sake of getting dice.

If you know the game ends with you kicking it, and the point is to portray the experience of doing so, then it seems to me that the current dice pools would be somewhat tangential to the "real issue" of "what happens in your life while you're kicking it?"

If the goal is to play through situations that make you question "How bad do you want to kick it?  What are you willing to do?", with the possibility that maybe someone will decide not to kick it (as opposed to, y'know, failing due to poor strategy or luck), I'd think that might produce the sort of deep probing you sound interested in.

Please pardon the oversimplification of these three options, my aim was just to contrast them.
[/quote]

Thanks for addressing this particular point in the power of 19. You know, I am not 100% sure. I like the idea that if the player kicks (stays away from the Junk dice and the ODing side of the life meter) the dual reality that the character experiences can seal itself off and they will remain in the mundane reality where the antagonists cannot reach them. But i would probably need something in the mundane to drive them back to the addiction in order to off-balance something here. This will probably be a good portion of the game mechanics : the importance of having exclusive junk and sober dice pools for various reasons.

For now i am comfortable with the idea of having players portray characters that are stuck inbetween two realities. One is the warped reality which they experience when succumbing to their addiction and the mundane which they experience when they are sober. In just about any scene in the game one will be in effect at a time over the other and the switching back and forth is based on whether junk dice or sober dice pools are used for conflict resolution.

[David Berg]

Lemme just throw an idea out:

In the warped reality, the characters are threatened Physically.  The people who threaten them are part of something grand and dramatic -- ancient conspiracies, secret government programs, aliens, supervillains, cults, nefarious politicians, etc.  Escaping the Physical threats is usually only possible with Junk dice -- you're generally outclassed and need to warp reality to get away.

In the mundane reality, the characters are threatened Emotionally.  The things that threaten them are the situations of their current life -- divorce, AIDS, custody battles, dying loved ones, guilt over a crime -- something you can't just fix by changing the situation, but rather something that you can only "come to grips with".  Sober dice would be needed for this.

So, the game would be constant development of one basic choice: Which threats would you rather face, Physical or Emotional?

(I think that was inspired in part by The Fisher King.)