Two Evolution Themed Games- Power 19 and other ideas

[chronoplasm]

At first I only wanted to make one game themed around evolution, but the more I thought about it the more I want to do two. I originally wanted to do an RPG, then decided to turn my ideas into a TCG, now I want to do both. It might be difficult to create two games simultaneously but then again they are similar enough that they could feed into each other.

1.) What is your game about?
I want to make evolution and natural selection themed games in a science-fiction setting.

2.) What do the characters do?
The characters attempt to either survive in their evironments or insure that others like themselves survive in their environment.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
Still deciding. I have some ideas that I will post down the page.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
Humans and other beings attempt to spread and colonize other worlds. In order to adapt to their new surroundings humans are forced to restructure their bodies through the use of nanites and symbiotes. The competition for resources and the struggle to survive is a big part of the theme and mechanics.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
Character creation is an ongoing process that starts out simple and grows in complexity.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
The basic goal of the two games is to not die. There are a variety of survival strategies that can be used to attain that goal. I'll go into more detail about this later down the page.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
The organisms that survive replicate. The organisms that don't survive don't replicate.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Still working on that...

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
Both games are about evolution. Thats a bit of a hot topic right now what with Creationists and all... The games here are meant to capitalize on that controversy.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Resolution is based on natural selection. There are two components to this: randomization and selection. First randomization using dice or cards is used to produce a number of possibilities. Selection pressures then eliminate most of these possibilities. Whatever possibilities that remain are available to the player.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
They are based on natural selection.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Characters in the game advance by evolution.
First there is a random aspect; characters will mutate over time. These mutations will affect the character's fitness for better or for worse.
Selection pressures weed out the mutations that work against the character.
The mutations that work for the character are replicated.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
Character advancement is based on natural selection.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
I want it to be an educational experience.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
The mechanics, definately.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
The mechanics. Storyline and everything is up to the players mostly.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
Well I haven't see a lot of games about evolution...

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
Not sure yet.

19.) Who is your target audience?
Students mostly. I think I want this game to be educational.

OK, so some more detailed information.

My idea to do this came from this thread:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41946&sid=a9c26640aa47e4981518f2541f66854f

At first I had the idea to do some sort of RPG where players would roll dice pools and then all the dice that roll lower than a certain number are eliminated.
Then I had the idea that the remaining dice could replicate.
When two dice in your dice pool land on the same number, add another die to your dice pool.
In the same way though that habitats can only support a certain number of organisms, players would have some kind of cap placed on the number of dice in their pool. Once exceeded the dice would cannabalize each other. This prevents dice pools from becoming too outrageously big.
Replication is not perfect. First of all, if a d4 and a d20 both land on the same number, what sort of die would they produce? Thats a problem I'm still working on. I could probably devise a table for that though. I was also thinking that dice could pick up other characteristics through mutation. Perhaps depending on what number the two replicating dice land on determines what sort of trait the spawned die picks up. Player's character sheets would have to have sections where they note all the types of die in their dice pools and what traits each of those individual dice possess.

I was thinking of using playing cards to note traits for a while until that gave me a new idea to use playing cards instead of dice.

All players use a single deck of 52 playing cards as a 'resource deck'.
Cards from the deck represent genes.
At the beginning of each player's turn:
1a) If that player has no genes in their 'gene pool', that player puts the top card of the deck into their gene pool.
1b) If that player does have genes in their gene pool, those genes must attempt to 'replicate'. The player decides the order in which they replicated.
2) To replicated a gene, a player reveals the top card of the deck.
3a) If the revealed card shares any characteristic with the replicating card (color, suit, number) the gene replicates successfully and the revealed card is put into your gene pool.
3b) If the revealed card does not share any characteristics with the replicating card, the gene does not replicate successfully. The revealed card is put on the bottom of the deck and the gene that failed to replicate is put into a discard pile.

This link
http://www.somatik.se/Assets/Dokument/Introduction_to_Survival_Strategies.pdf

...provides some interesting information on survival strategies.

1) Rescuing (must rescue others.)
2) Attaching (must be rescued by others.)
3) Asserting (must achieve goals.)
4) Adapting (must surrender goals.)
5) Fighting (must remove danger.)
6) Fleeing (must remove self from danger.)
7) Competing (must obtain scarce materials.)
Cooperating (must create scarce materials.)

I think this would be an interesting concept to incorporate into a game.


Anyway, I had two ideas for games; one for an RPG and the other for a TCG.

NANITES:
The RPG would use the dice mechanic to represent nanites or symbiotes in your character's body. Your character's stats would represent not only your character's natural abilities without nanites but also the selection pressures that your nanites must adapt to. You have no direct control over how your nanites adapt to your character's body but you can try to manipulate their environment to nudge them in a certain direction. Some nanites however may adapt to try and change your character's body to suit their needs. This can be a disadvantage or it can be a benefit.

This is a more complicated version of the 'Opportunity' system I've been kicking around.

Opportunity system:
In games like D&D, you first decide what action you want your character to take then you

MORE IN A MINUTE

[chronoplasm]

...I forgot that I couldn't edit posts.

Picking back up from where I started though...

Opportunity System:

In d20 system, resolution works by first announcing your action then rolling to see whether it was successful.
In opportunity system, everybody rolls their dice pools at the same time at the beginning of the scene during the 'scene setting' phase. Each die is color coded to represent a different type of 'opportunity'. Types of opportunity include opportunities of Strength, Inspiration, Knowledge, Sight, etc.
A 'tension level' for the scene is determined before dice are rolled. A scene taking place in a quiet village for example will have a low tension level while a scene taking place in the heat of battle will have a high tension level.
Dice that roll lower than the tension level are eliminated and thus opportunities are eliminated.

The opportunities you have available determine what sort of options are easily available for your character during that scene. With an Opportunity of Sight for example, your character starts the scene with a clear view of their surroundings.
You can spend your opportunity during the turn to successfully perform a sight related action.
If you want to shoot an arrow at an enemy in d20 you have to roll to see whether your aim was right.
In Opportunity system, you spend an opportunity die to successfully hit what you are aiming at.


With the addition of 'natural selection' mechanics, eliminated dice are eliminated from your dice pool permanently but those opportunities that aren't eliminated have the possibility to multiply permanently.

TCG:

In the trading card game, each player has their own custom deck full of cards they play with but all players draw from a shared 'resource deck' full of 'resource cards'. Resource cards are used to play cards from your personal deck. Players must compete for resources but if the resource deck runs out of cards then all players lose.

Using resources, players can play different kinds of cards including Species, Reactions, Pressures, Technologies, and various others. These are used for various functions such as manipulating resources, protecting your resources and insuring your survival, eliminating players or taking their resources, or even protecting other players and their resources.

The resource deck also contains a number of 'trump' cards.
The trump cards can serve a few different purposes but their primary function is to act as a clock.
Whenever a trump card is drawn from the resource deck is put directly into play.
There are no cards available that can remove a trump from play (at least not in the starter set. Save it for a later expansion.)
When all the trump cards in the deck are put into play, every player that is still in the game wins.

It's a non-zero sum game you see. Players don't neccessarily have to win or lose to the mutual exclusion of other players. It's possible for all players to lose the game and it's possible for all players to win and it's possible for some players to win and for others to lose.
If this were a tournament, if all players in a match lose they are all eliminated from the tournament. If multiple players win a match then they all move on to the next match together. However, when there are more players in a match the resources are spread more thinly. Players are forced at a point to have to eliminate other players so that they themselves are not eliminated. Multiple players can win the final round, but if they do then the prize is divided up amongst them. In the final match players have a much greater incentive to try and eliminate eachother.

[chronoplasm]

Dice Replication:

When two dice land on the same number, they replicate to produce offspring.

d4+d6= Choose d4 or d6.
d4+d8= d6.
d4+d10= Choose d6 or d8.
d4+d12=d8.
d6+d8= Choose d6 or d8.
d6+d10=d8.
d6+d12= Choose d8 or d10.
d8+d10= Choose d8 or d10.
d8+d12= d10.
d10+d12= Choose d10 or d12.

If the two parent dice are different colors, you choose which color you want the offspring to be.

Dice Colors and Opportunity Types:

Orange= Muscle Die= Opportunity for Strength or Opportunity for Speed
Blue= Brain Die= Opportunity for Knowledge or Opportunity for Reflex.
Black= Sense Die= Opportunity for Sight or Opportunity for Inspiration
White= Heart Die= Opportunity for Healing or Opportunity for Charisma